The most famous example of the application of this philosophy in black liberation activism is the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Rosa Parks became an emblem of injustice not only by virtue of her exemplary courage, but because it would have been more difficult to rally support behind Claudette Colvin, the unwed pregnant teenager arrested for refusing to give up her seat nine months before Parks. If part of the argument against racism were to rest on black people’s moral authority, the fifteen-year-old Colvin couldn’t become the face of the movement.
