By 
Wednesday, December 2, 2015, Bronx, New York, The New York Peace
Coalition, through its Peace December movement, affirmed and recognized
the Honorable Claudette Colvin yesterday at The Bronx Library Center.
Hon. Colvin is the first civil rights leader who had refused to give up
her bus seat to a white person in Montgomery, Alabama. Her bold stance in
the face of injustice has made renowned heroes like the Honorable Rosa
Parks and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King to take assume the mantra of
well deserving accolades in history that highlights the Montgomery Bus
Boycott and the eventual passage of the civil rights laws that ended
segregation in Alabama.
Yesterday’s event at the Bronx Library Center
honored the person that triggered the whole action that has gone into the
world’s history books. It is text book clear that the Honorable Colvin is
the unsung hero and a living legend of our time who deserves the same
recognition as the Honorable Rosa Parks, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King
and other civil rights icons that have taken the front seat in America’s
historic journey.
While we recognize that Hon. Rosa Parks, through NAACP campaign, became
the face of resilience surrounding the Montgomery bus segregation
uprising, we would like to affirm Hon. Colvin as being the first person
who refused to give up the seat and her action inspired Hon. Parks.
Today, America has registered this social justice historic hallmark as a
precedence inspiring America’s legal discourse and motivating civil rights
leaders of our time because of the immovable stand in the face of
injustice from both Mrs. Colvin and Mrs. Parks.
To this end, the New York Peace Coalition, in collaboration with elected
officials in New York, has launched a national justice awareness campaign
to render the long overdue and delayed credit to the unsung heroine of the
civil rights movement, the Honorable Claudette Colvin.
This campaign includes:
1. Annual celebration of Claudette Colvin-Rosa Parks Day on December 1st.
2. Establishing a scholarship fund in her name on March 2, 2016 during the
Commission on the Status of Women event at the United Nations.
3. Asking President Obama to honor her with ‘Presidential Medal of Freedom’
4. Asking Congressional Black Caucus to recognize her as the
first activist to refused to yield to the demand of segregationist bus
driver.
For further information about this campaign, please contact us at:
info@peacedecember.org. www.peacedecember.org
Mrs. Edna Thomas-Granger, Executive Director.
Ms. Lisa Allen, Deputy Director.
Mr. William James, Director of Outreach.
Ms. Jennifer Onomo, Director of International Relations.
Mr. Spencer Chiimbwe, Secretary General.
Mr. Peter Rogina, Director of Relations.
Mr. Leroy Nibbs, Technical Director.
Sincerely yours,
Sheikh Musa Drammeh, Chairman
718-239-5555