The power of the spectacle: Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

 

An interesting podcast exploring the life of Claudette Colvin and why she is less well remembered than Rosa Parks.

The power of spectacle: Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

In this podcast, three students discuss the civil rights movement in America, and specifically the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The term ‘civil rights movement’ dedicates the core of the struggle not just to the iconic individuals, and moments, but to the ‘breadth of its vision, leaders, strategies and struggles’. The podcast explores this through the idea of historical consciousness, as ‘the area in which collective memory, the writing of history; and other modes of shaping images of the past in the public mind merge’ to create Rosa Parks as an icon, and mythologise her and her contributions.  

Additionally, the podcast examines how modern historians are trying to challenge and change this historical consciousness; through moving away from the ‘Great Man’ narrative, a historical theory that key men or heroes are the propellers of historical change. Accordingly they are placing at the forefront other individuals like Claudette Colvin who were marginalised, as well as organisations such as the Women’s Political Council, that played a pivotal role in campaigning for civil rights.