Being brave, courageous, and strong isn't easy. It may seem hard at times, but someone has to do it. Often, Those who are brave and strong do not feel that way and surely do not want the battles that give them that title Again, someone has to do it. Who wants to stand up and fight the good fight when sitting down is so much easier? In some cases, sitting staying seated is a challenge.
Who wants to sacrifice their life savings or all of their income for a dream, not knowing if it will come to pass or be fruitful? Who wants to lay in the mud and fertilizer, waiting on the rain and sunshine to make them blossom? Who? It sounds like it isn't much to someone who doesn't know what is in some fertilizers, who doesn't know what living in the red is. It may even appear to be an easy fight until blows are being thrown. Everyone is being tossed all over the place; when you are praying most of the time, you don't lose. But, there is something deep within a person that tells them this is the right thing to do, that you can do it, to keep going, and I have your back. You then begin to gain confidence in what you are facing or doing. You begin to have faith that it will work out. You start to feel like you will not be defeated. You will no longer be afraid. The voice of God will be whispering in your ear. That's the Holy Spirit leading you. Your protective angels will form around you. That's your bravery, your courage, and your strength tapping in! There is something about having Jesus on the inside of you; it's powerful!
Isaiah 41:10
"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
Claudette Colvin/ Black History Month/ Facts
Most people think of Rosa Parks as the first person to refuse to give up their seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. There were actually several women who came before her; one of whom was Claudette Colvin.
It was March 2, 1955, when the fifteen-year-old schoolgirl refused to move to the back of the bus, nine months before Rosa Parks’ stand that launched the Montgomery bus boycott. Claudette had been studying Black leaders like Harriet Tubman in her segregated school, those conversations had led to discussions around the current day Jim Crow laws they were all experiencing. When the bus driver ordered Claudette to get up, she refused, “It felt like Sojourner Truth was on one side pushing me down, and Harriet Tubman was on the other side of me pushing me down. I couldn't get up."
Claudette Colvin’s stand didn’t stop there. Arrested and thrown in jail, she was one of four women who challenged the segregation law in court. If Browder v. Gayle became the court case that successfully overturned bus segregation laws in both Montgomery and Alabama, why has Claudette’s story been largely forgotten? At the time, the NAACP and other Black organizations felt Rosa Parks made a better icon for the movement than a teenager. As an adult with the right look, Rosa Parks was also the secretary of the NAACP, and was both well-known and respected – people would associate her with the middle class and that would attract support for the cause. But the struggle to end segregation was often fought by young people, more than half of which were women.
* I do not own the rights to the Claudette Colvin story/ book image*
" I may not be known today, but that doesn't mean I can't make history." - Alston Shropshire
