PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — SEPTA is commemorating Black History Month with a tribute to two activists who staged similar bus protests in Montgomery, Alabama.
Rosa Parks became a civil rights icon after her arrest for refusing to move to the back of a segregated bus in 1955. A protest by Claudette Colvin is lesser known, and SEPTA’s new chief equity and inclusion officer Emmanuella Myrthil says she wanted to be sure people learned about Colvin.
“I felt it was important to highlight her,” Myrthil told KYW Newsradio.
Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a young white woman on a Montgomery bus in March 1955. Her protest happened nine months before Parks but the incident didn’t get as much publicity because Colvin was 15, dark-skinned, unmarried, and pregnant, Myrthil said.
“I dare say that Claudette could relate to more of our female ridership than Rosa,” Myrthil said. “That’s no disrespect, that’s just the fact.”
Related
Myrthil says there’s a high rate of young Black women that utilize SEPTA services. And she felt strongly that this woman, who was ignored and not recognized for being a young lady in "unfortunate” circumstances was not worthy of being recognized for what she did which was brave, she said.
Throughout February, a cutout of Rosa Parks will be placed on the front seat of a Route 33 bus, and trolley routes 11, 13, 34, and 36. A temporary statue of Parks will also be on display at SEPTA headquarters.
“Transit, race, and inequity have always been intertwined. And transit has been at the forefront of the civil rights movement,” SEPTA General Manager Leslie Richards said at the statue’s unveiling Wednesday. “We celebrate Rosa Parks and Claudette Colvin’s legacy today because it was their courage that makes us all take pride in the roles we play in providing public transportation that unites the communities we serve and connects people to opportunities.”