Before visiting the Centre for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, I knew the basics of the civil rights movement: I had read about the movement here and there and believed myself to be pretty well informed. The incredibly informative American Civil Rights Movement exhibit in the centre exposed gaping holes in my own, and much of society’s, knowledge and beliefs about the movement. Perhaps we’re often led to believe that one or two major actions have the ability to characterise a whole campaign. This thought-provoking exhibition highlighted the naivety encouraging that belief and, through a series of video clips, information boards, interviews and images, aided any visitor to truly understand the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s and discover those one or two actions were merely paving slabs on a long road to justice.
Something that had never really occurred to me before was the significance of image and publicity to the movement. Previously people would have relied on radio and newspapers as their source of information. However, at the climax of the Civil Rights Movement many people had televisions in their homes and would merely have to turn on their televisions to see live footage. Therefore, turning people in favour of the campaign was extremely reliant on how much people knew. This is illustrated in the story of Claudette Colvin, a pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement. On March 2nd, 1955, nine months prior to Rosa Parks, Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Merely a student, Colvin was charged on three counts: assaulting policemen, breaking the segregation ordinance and disturbing the peace. For many years Colvin’s pioneering efforts remained unpublicised and unheard of by many as she was from ‘the wrong side of town’. Claudette Colvin grew up in a poor black neighbourhood in Montgomery, Alabama and when she was a teenager, around the time she refused to give up her seat, she was reportedly made pregnant by a married man.
Colvin’s story is one of potentially hundreds, or even thousands, that remain hidden in history. Rosa Parks’ story was so heavily publicised by black leaders as she was seen to be a hard-working, honest woman: perfect to rally support and figure-head such an important campaign. It makes you wonder how many stories are lost in time: unheard of by much of the world? Not dissimilar to the horrifying tragedy of Emmet Till: how many other young, coloured children mysteriously disappeared from their beds in cities, towns and village backwaters all over America? How many people never gained the justice they deserved? How many struggles and unsung heroes erased or never present in the history books? I suppose the Civil Rights Movement, despite being defined by figures such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, was just as much about the small steps, about doing the right thing as it was the big leaps, the heroes and the household names.
Grace - Upon - Paper 