Segregation in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 meant paying attention to all the laws and rules if you were a negro: NEVER touch a white person, walk on the opposite side of the street as white people, pay your bus fare at the front of the bus but enter through the back door, NEVER sit in the first 10 rows, and give up your seat for a white person. There were severe consequences if you did anything the wrong way. On March 2, 1955, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested, thrown into a squad car and verbally insulted all the way to jail - she refused to stand and give up her seat to a white woman. So begins Claudette standing up for her rights as a citizen of the United States.
This well-researched biography brings to life the civil rights movement of 1955-56 in Montgomery, Alabama including the bus boycott and the roles of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., and how Claudette contributed to changing the course of American history.
Awards nominated: 2009 National Book Award Finalist
Awards won: Newbery Honor 2010
Date read: 2/3/2010
ISBN-10: 0374313229
ISBN-13: 9780374313227