In 1955, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her Montgomery, Alabama, bus seat to a white passenger and was arrested.
But you probably haven't heard of her.
Nine months later, Rosa Parks made the same bold gesture and became a national icon. The difference? Colvin's story was covered only by the black press and was blatantly ignored by white newspapers.
“If journalism is the first rough draft of history, white newspapers were the first to write Colvin out of our nation’s history,” said Professor Matthew Delmont, director of the School for Historical Philosophical and Religious Studies.
In a new video, Delmont highlights the critical role of "the fighting press," and how that valiant effort laid the groundwork for today's social-media activism.
Top photo: "The Year They Walked," a monument to the Montgomery Bus Boycott at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee.
More Law, journalism and politics
Peace advocate Bernice A. King to speak at ASU in October
Bernice A. King is committed to creating a more peaceful, just and humane world through nonviolent social change.“We cannot afford as normal the presence of injustice, inhumanity and violence,…
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to receive 41st Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism
Wolf Blitzer, the longtime CNN journalist and anchor of “The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer,” will accept the 41st Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, Arizona State University has…
Cronkite School launches Women Leaders in Sports Media live-learn program
Women in a new sports media program at Arizona State University got a solid game plan from a sports veteran at an Aug. 20 welcome event.“Be humble, be consistent and be a solver,” Charli Turner…