Black History Month Commemoration featuring Civil Rights Activist Claudette Colvin
March on Washington Film Festival, 1199SEIU health care workers union and Bread & Roses Cultural Project present Civil Rights icon and 1199SEIU member, Claudette Colvin of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, in conversation with NY Times journalist Jada F. Smith on Tuesday, February 16, 2016, 6:00pm at Martin Luther King Labor Center Auditorium, 310 W. 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036.
The event features special remarks from George Gresham, President of 1199SEIU, with a video excerpt from Eyes on the Prize: Awakenings, 1954-56 and a performance by dancer Adaku Utah and violinist Juliette Jones.
Before Rosa Parks, there was Claudette Colvin. Few people know the story of Claudette Colvin: when she was 15, she refused to move to the back of the bus and give up her seat to a white person — nine months before Rosa Parks did the very same thing. “We celebrate the extraordinary women who, though often behind the scenes, were central to the success of the movement,” says Isisara Bey, March on Washington Film Festival Producer. “None was more courageous than Claudette Colvin, the teenager who by sitting down proved she was standing strong. Ms. Colvin and her family suffered greatly for her activism. She was a true foot soldier of the movement.”
ABOUT MARCH ON WASHINGTON FILM FESTIVAL
The March on Washington Film Festival uses the power of film and other disciplines to share stories from this critical period in American History, the Civil Rights Movement. In a unique blend of documentary and narrative films with scholarship, first person accounts, the performing arts, and new this year, a student and emerging film competition, the festival strives to educate and inspire a renewed spirit of activism.
The Festival returns to Washington D.C. from July 13 – 23, 2016. For more information on the 2016 March on Washington Film Festival visit the website at marchonwashingtonfilmfestival.org. Stay connected #MarchOn.
