Understanding Courage: Honoring Claudette Colvin

"Understanding Courage" is a series of events honoring the life and acts of courage of unsung civil rights heroine, Claudette Colvin.

A new book about her life, Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice by Phillip Hoose was the basis for this project.

Because Claudette Colvin’s act of courage in 1955 aboard a Montgomery city bus was a decisive step to ending segregation on U.S. transportation, the “Understanding Courage” project brings Claudette Colvin’s story to bus riders in the city of Portland, Maine.

Because that act of courage came from the assurance and strength of a teenager, the project asked area teenagers to tell Claudette’s story to the public.

Pictured are MECA Art Education majors working with King Middle School students to create art panels for the buses, the exhibition itself, and events surrounding Claudette Colvin's appearance in Portland, Maine with author, Phillip Hoose in Feb. 2009.