“Not long ago, Claudette Colvin telephoned me from a hospice facility in Texas to say goodbye…We remembered the time during our book tour when patrons coiled around the block outside the Birmingham, Ala., public library for the chance to meet her. Most were Black women. “My momma always told me there was someone before Rosa Parks,” some of them said tearfully. ”   —Phillip Hoose

Read Phillip Hoose’s remembrance of his dear friend and co-author, Civil Rights heroine Claudette Colvin.

Their collaboration on Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice and Claudette Colvin: I Want Freedom Now! transformed how students and educators think about about youth activism and whose stories are remembered.