Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Monkey m On September,
Speaker 1: Rose Kennedy's labor came on hard and fast. The nurse
Speaker 1: arrived quickly, but the family physician was running behind. The
Speaker 1: Kennedy's wanted to wait for his arrival, but the baby
Speaker 1: had other plans. The nurse advised rose to squeeze her
Speaker 1: legs together to prevent the birth, and when the baby's
Speaker 1: head became visible, the nurse pushed against it. An hour later,
Speaker 1: the doctor arrived and nature was allowed to take its course,
Speaker 1: bringing little Rosemary into the world. After declaring her healthy,
Speaker 1: the doctor left mm. No one realized that delaying the
Speaker 1: birth had caused a lack of oxygen to Rosemary's brain.
Speaker 1: They only noticed years later when she took longer to
Speaker 1: learn than her siblings. Teachers recommended that Rosemary repeat kindergarten
Speaker 1: and the first grade. Her parents, who demanded the best
Speaker 1: from their children, were embarrassed. Determined to fix their daughter,
Speaker 1: they paid for special tutoring and experimental injections. Through it all,
Speaker 1: Rosemary tried to keep up with her brothers and sisters
Speaker 1: and desperately wanted to please her parents. Despite her best
Speaker 1: efforts and those of her teachers, she couldn't seem to
Speaker 1: advance past the intellectual age of ten or eleven. While
Speaker 1: rose looked for a way to cure their daughter, Joe
Speaker 1: turned his attention to his son, Joseph Jr. Fearing Rosemary's
Speaker 1: disability would tarnish his son's chances in politics, he sent
Speaker 1: her to boarding schools where she would be out of
Speaker 1: the public eye. A Rosemary couldn't help but notice her
Speaker 1: father's disapproval. She wrote to him, I would do anything
Speaker 1: to make you so happy. I hate to disappoint you
Speaker 1: in any way. Come to see me very soon. Her
Speaker 1: teachers commented that Rosemary was always optimistic, always cheerful. Over
Speaker 1: the years, she flourished under the care of English Montessori schools,
Speaker 1: but when she grew older and returned to the States,
Speaker 1: Rosemary began acting out. Joe looked into surgery for his daughter.
Speaker 1: The botanies had been performed on those diagnosed with intellectual disabilities,
Speaker 1: gay men and lesbians, criminals and women considered overly promiscuous,
Speaker 1: but the American Medical Association strongly recommended against the surgery
Speaker 1: due to a high death rate still, Joe arranged for
Speaker 1: the operation without telling his wife or family. Doctors shaved
Speaker 1: Rosemary's head and strapped her to the operating table. They
Speaker 1: kept her awake during the procedure, telling her to sing
Speaker 1: or talk while they cut away parts of her brain,
Speaker 1: stopping when Rosemary fell silent. The surgery reduced her mental
Speaker 1: capacity to that of a two year old. Joe had
Speaker 1: her institutionalized in New York, refusing to allow the family
Speaker 1: to see her. He told the public she was away
Speaker 1: studying to become a teacher. He never saw his daughter again.
Speaker 1: Her brother Jack often snuck visits to see his sister.
Speaker 1: Rosemary lived the rest of her life in a cottage
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin. She died in two thousand five, surrounded by
Speaker 1: her surviving siblings and the pets she loved to spoil.
Speaker 1: Rosemary never realized the changes her brother made when he
Speaker 1: became president. Though his family called him Jack, we know
Speaker 1: him as John F. Kennedy. He felt research and education
Speaker 1: for people diagnosed with an intellectual disability was blacking and
Speaker 1: wanted bold new approaches for their care. He once said
Speaker 1: that people with such disabilities need no longer be alien
Speaker 1: to our affections or beyond the help of our communities,
Speaker 1: and because of his love for Rosemary, JFK did something else.
Speaker 1: He paved the way for things hidden in the dark
Speaker 1: to see the light of day. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome
Speaker 1: to American Shadows. Dr Samuel Gridley Howe stood on the
Speaker 1: lawn of the school he had created and smiled as
Speaker 1: the children played. They were unaware of his smile or
Speaker 1: the joy he had in watching them. The children were blind,
Speaker 1: he didn't believe they should be objects of pity, nor
Speaker 1: that they deserved less of an education than anyone else.
Speaker 1: He had started work with people with visual impairments in
Speaker 1: eighty nine as director at the New England Asylum for
Speaker 1: the Blind, and the research took him to Europe to
Speaker 1: study similar programs. Back at home, in eighteen thirty two,
Speaker 1: his school's first students arrived, arranging from six to twenty
Speaker 1: one years of age. A wealthy investor donated his home
Speaker 1: as the school's classroom area, and eventually the asylum was
Speaker 1: renamed the Perkins School for the Blind. As Hal watched
Speaker 1: the children, he had high hopes for the school and
Speaker 1: the changes it would make in the students lives. That
Speaker 1: hope wasn't misplaced. The school thrived. In eighteen thirty seven,
Speaker 1: he invited a child who was both deaf and blind
Speaker 1: to attend Perkins. Under the care and guidance of the school,
Speaker 1: Laura Bridgeman became the first deaf and blind student to
Speaker 1: receive a full and successful education, bringing fame and attention
Speaker 1: to both the school and doctor. How his personal life
Speaker 1: flourished too. He had married well Julia Ward was the
Speaker 1: daughter of a successful New York banker and had talents
Speaker 1: and ambitions of her own. She was an outspoken up bolitionists, suffragist,
Speaker 1: and songwriter. She had written the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Speaker 1: Before long, the House helped found other schools in Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky,
Speaker 1: and Tennessee. By et eight, the Perkins School was a
Speaker 1: well established success. The House set their sights on creating
Speaker 1: school for those with intellectual disabilities. They partnered with Doorthea Dix,
Speaker 1: an activist who was a champion for indigenous populations, women
Speaker 1: in nursing, and mental health. Like the House, she thought
Speaker 1: anyone experiencing mental trauma or an intellectual disability deserved every
Speaker 1: chance to reach their potential. Today, she's accredited with making
Speaker 1: drastic changes in the medical field by challenging what was
Speaker 1: known about healing and illness. She had spent years studying
Speaker 1: how reformers in Europe treated and cared for people with
Speaker 1: mental illnesses. Upon her return to the States, she visited
Speaker 1: hospitals across the country in the hopes of making positive changes.
Speaker 1: Finding are inadequate, Dix lobbied politicians for state hospitals and
Speaker 1: funding to help, though she was unsuccessful in persuading the government.
Speaker 1: Dix helped to establish asylums in New Jersey, North Carolina,
Speaker 1: and Illinois. During the Civil War, Dix treated both Union
Speaker 1: and Confederate soldiers, earning her respect from both sides, though
Speaker 1: female nurses were looked down on at the time, and
Speaker 1: she pushed for formal training and more opportunities in the
Speaker 1: medical field for women. After comparing notes, how and Dix
Speaker 1: opened their school in Massachusetts in eighteen fifty one with
Speaker 1: a total of ten students, and not only did they
Speaker 1: supply the children with a proper education, but they taught
Speaker 1: practical skills in the hopes that students would be able
Speaker 1: to support themselves and become productive members of the community.
Speaker 1: They took on students with more severe symptoms. Although not
Speaker 1: every student went on to earn an education or become
Speaker 1: self sufficient, How and Dix successfully helped the majority of
Speaker 1: the children they oversaw. Ap parents from as far as
Speaker 1: Texas began sending their children to the school. Even so,
Speaker 1: the medical community continued to consider their approach experimental, although
Speaker 1: how Indix preferred the term school. More began calling the
Speaker 1: school's asylums in eighteen sixty seven. Determined to make even
Speaker 1: more changes in the lives of others, How began to
Speaker 1: teach deaf students to lip read. For blind students, he
Speaker 1: developed an embossed letter system that remained the preferred format
Speaker 1: until Braille came into use in the late eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 1: Between eighteen seventy and eighteen ninety, the public's attitude toward
Speaker 1: people with intellectual disabilities changed. Instead of a push to
Speaker 1: make the deviant undeviant, as society put it, the focus
Speaker 1: shifted on removing them from society indefinitely, and the more
Speaker 1: remote the asylum, the better. Doctor how continued his work
Speaker 1: in rehabilitation until his death in eighteen seventy six. The
Speaker 1: school carried on, still using his methods to help people,
Speaker 1: while others chose to permanently rehome them. A society's philosophy
Speaker 1: had become out of sight, out of mind, and in
Speaker 1: seven How school was moved to a more remote location,
Speaker 1: are tract just outside of Waltham. His methods of teaching
Speaker 1: and caring for the children had fallen from favor. Instead,
Speaker 1: many in the scientific community had taken a work of
Speaker 1: natural science and begun to twist it, making cases for
Speaker 1: a drastic approach to dealing with people with intellectual disabilities
Speaker 1: and mental illnesses. The once sunny yards where How had
Speaker 1: watched the children play We're about to change into something
Speaker 1: much darker. Charles Darwin's book on the Origin of the
Speaker 1: Species took the world by storm in eighteen denine from
Speaker 1: religious leaders to scientists. The contents and words were challenged, praised,
Speaker 1: or misconstrued, depending on vocation and beliefs. Everyone had an opinion,
Speaker 1: and for many opinion was fact. The book renewed interest
Speaker 1: in Gregor Mendel's work in genetics. Some argued that intelligence, character,
Speaker 1: and morality were rooted in biology nature instead of nurture.
Speaker 1: These theories were derailments from both Mendel and Darwin's scientific findings.
Speaker 1: A misconstrued or not that didn't stop the progression of
Speaker 1: some to believe that all people with disabilities came from
Speaker 1: poor breeding and genetics. In the eighteen eighties, author R. L.
Speaker 1: Dugdale wrote that society's problems were the direct result of
Speaker 1: overbreeding among the lower classes. Environment, he claimed, had less
Speaker 1: to do with crime, disease, and ability than genetics, and
Speaker 1: he didn't just supply a problem. He had an answer, eugenics,
Speaker 1: which is basically the concept of trying to improve the
Speaker 1: genetic qualities of people through selective reproduction. The theory was
Speaker 1: that people with what were deemed poor character traits, intellectual
Speaker 1: or physical disabilities, or criminal or immoral behaviors should not
Speaker 1: have children. Meanwhile, those deemed to have desirable physical and
Speaker 1: mental traits and who were wealthy should have children. Francis
Speaker 1: Galton coined the term eugenics in eighteen thirty three, but
Speaker 1: it's an idea that's circulated in many cultures throughout the ages.
Speaker 1: Back in four hundred b c e. Those considered unfit
Speaker 1: were forbidden to marry or had forced sterilization procedures. Over
Speaker 1: the centuries, different cultures had different ideas of how far
Speaker 1: to take this practice. If you're already thinking of Nazi
Speaker 1: Germany as a later example of eugenics. Then you'd be correct.
Speaker 1: Doug Bail had come up with his theory regarding humans
Speaker 1: by loosely taking from Mendel's work on using genetics to
Speaker 1: produce better and new varieties of vegetables, and from Darwin's
Speaker 1: observations that strong, healthy animals lived to propagate their species
Speaker 1: in the wild. In his opinion, the lower class was
Speaker 1: a burden on society, and he made a case for
Speaker 1: preventing them from having children. People in the United States, Canada, Sweden, England,
Speaker 1: and other countries across Europe all believed in eugenics in
Speaker 1: some way or another. These societies began to fear that
Speaker 1: too many people who were not the fittest, healthiest, or
Speaker 1: most intelligent would water down the human race. They began
Speaker 1: to think reform for people with intellectual or physical disabilities
Speaker 1: wasn't the right course of action. Instead, they believed in
Speaker 1: preventing their existence. For instance, doctors and prompted parents to
Speaker 1: forego life saving treatment for newborns who had visible defects.
Speaker 1: In their opinion, these children would grow to burden society,
Speaker 1: and at the very least they certainly couldn't contribute to
Speaker 1: furthering the human race. Despite what how and Dix had accomplished.
Speaker 1: Such children who survived, or those who experienced an injury
Speaker 1: or ailment, were sent to asylums and institutions to live
Speaker 1: shuddered away from the rest of the world. Some, like
Speaker 1: one doctor Walter Fernald, agreed with doug Dale. He suggested
Speaker 1: that children pass government issued i Q tests early in life.
Speaker 1: Those who scored below average would be removed from society indefinitely.
Speaker 1: Fernald believed that their prompt and early removal would benefit
Speaker 1: the human race. At the time, institutions and asylums seemed
Speaker 1: the logical place to keep them, but state run institutions
Speaker 1: were already understaffed and cost a great deal. Fueling the
Speaker 1: controversy regarding how much of a burden people who had
Speaker 1: intellectual disabilities placed on society, Parents were increasingly pressured to
Speaker 1: surrender children who scored low or had disabilities to institutions.
Speaker 1: They were often told the children would live better lives,
Speaker 1: that they would be given the proper care they needed
Speaker 1: without burdening their families. And despite how in Dix's success,
Speaker 1: Fernald claimed that no amount of education could improve these
Speaker 1: children and that they could never function in society. Instead,
Speaker 1: he cherry picked the work of esteemed scientists like Mendel
Speaker 1: and Darwin to prove that these children were greatly inferior,
Speaker 1: offering little to no benefit in furthering mankind. If a
Speaker 1: parent refused to surrender a child with an intellectual disability,
Speaker 1: doctors in the community alike shamed them. Under the guise
Speaker 1: of child welfare, the state took parents to court, where
Speaker 1: they frequently lost custody. Researcher Henry Goddard insisted that these
Speaker 1: children weren't just a burden, they were a threat. He
Speaker 1: feared they would escape, and without any noticeable physical malformations,
Speaker 1: they might go unnoticed long enough to reproduce, which would
Speaker 1: deteriorate the human species. Thousands of children deemed feeble were
Speaker 1: sent to live in asylums and institutions across the country.
Speaker 1: Taking over as the third director of House Facility, doctor
Speaker 1: Fernald set out to make a radical departure from the
Speaker 1: school's original purpose. He increased the residency from four hundred
Speaker 1: to thirteen hundred. To support the growing population. He purchased
Speaker 1: another sixteen hundred acres. Traveling clinics became the norm in
Speaker 1: many states, the teachers and parents could bring children in
Speaker 1: for testing. After Fernald died in nine four, the school
Speaker 1: changed its name, becoming the Walter E. Fernald State School.
Speaker 1: They even expanded their parameters, taking on not just children
Speaker 1: with intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses, but those society deemed
Speaker 1: as normal with delinquent behaviors labeled as troubled. Boys who
Speaker 1: acted out, behaved badly, or acted dangerously in any way
Speaker 1: were sent to the Fernald School. Poverty and crime in
Speaker 1: overcrowded cities had skyrocketed, and those like Fernald put the
Speaker 1: blame on immigrants. They claimed these problems were the result
Speaker 1: of negative eugenics. Some of the country's elite became firm
Speaker 1: believers and used their influence to encourage the elimination of
Speaker 1: undesirables as a means to curb crime and reduce a literacy.
Speaker 1: At the height of the American eugenics era, and the
Speaker 1: message was clear, the human race could be free of
Speaker 1: disabilities and many diseases if the afflicted were prevented from reproducing.
Speaker 1: Everyone would fit a certain standard. Those of certain racial
Speaker 1: backgrounds or who acted different, or who had disabilities were
Speaker 1: less than everyone. Else. Freddie Boyce had been taken from
Speaker 1: his abuse of mother when he was seven. At eight,
Speaker 1: his equally abuse of foster mother died, though he had
Speaker 1: no formal education, and Freddie passed the IQ test, but
Speaker 1: instead of another foster home, he was sent to Fernald,
Speaker 1: and that's where he was kept for eleven years. He
Speaker 1: was one of the lucky ones. Some were told they'd
Speaker 1: be there for life. There was no love, no affection.
Speaker 1: The children were made to feel like they were never
Speaker 1: supposed to exist, and there were a lot of them.
Speaker 1: Thirty six beds were crammed into each dorm room. At
Speaker 1: its peak, two thousand, five hundred children resided at Fernald.
Speaker 1: The boys received little education, guards were often violent, and
Speaker 1: some of the boys suffered other abuse as well. Freddie
Speaker 1: recalled when Joseph Almeida arrived, his father dropped him off,
Speaker 1: telling his son to wait in the hall. Then Joe
Speaker 1: Sor drove away, leaving his son behind. A one night
Speaker 1: and Howie, a boy with intellectual disabilities, couldn't keep quiet.
Speaker 1: The nurse had all the boys line up, then she
Speaker 1: beat them with a wooden coat hanger. Terrified, Howie wet himself,
Speaker 1: earning a second beating. By the nineteen fifties, they had television,
Speaker 1: which brought the outside world to the school, and some
Speaker 1: of the older boys without disabilities began to realize there
Speaker 1: was nothing wrong with them. While they were forced to
Speaker 1: do much of the labor that kept the place running,
Speaker 1: they began to plan and escape. Joey Almeida recalled working
Speaker 1: in the lab slicing up the brains of the boys
Speaker 1: who had died, also that scientists could study them. Those
Speaker 1: who escaped were quickly found and returned. Guards stripped them
Speaker 1: to their shorts, shaved their heads, and locked them in
Speaker 1: solitary confinement. Most were terrified to talk about an escape
Speaker 1: for fear of what would happen if they were caught.
Speaker 1: Other boys so captured didn't matter they were already dead.
Speaker 1: But Charlie Hatch inspired some of them. In the summer
Speaker 1: of nineteen fifty seven, he had escaped, living on the
Speaker 1: streets for weeks. On his return, he told the others
Speaker 1: that the school attendants who came to get him treated
Speaker 1: him like an animal, and that the cops had done
Speaker 1: nothing to stop it. Something has to be done, Charlie said.
Speaker 1: It all came to a head on November four, of
Speaker 1: ninety seven. Joey had just returned from his normal mourning
Speaker 1: chores when he noticed a boy named Curly talking to
Speaker 1: Charlie in the lunch room. Many of the boys, like Charlie,
Speaker 1: were nearly full grown and capable of taking on the guards.
Speaker 1: Before long, the two had convinced a dozen more to
Speaker 1: join the pact to escape, Joey being one of them.
Speaker 1: At three p um the boys who didn't want to
Speaker 1: fight but did want to escape, gathered in the day
Speaker 1: room to await the chaos. One of the boys started
Speaker 1: a fire in the closet. An attendant rushed into the
Speaker 1: room to pull the fire alarm. The boys tackled him,
Speaker 1: then through the employee outside. A second attendant promptly left
Speaker 1: when he realized who was easily outnumbered. During the commotion,
Speaker 1: a boy in the solitary cells used a wire hanger
Speaker 1: to unlock his door and then all the doors. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Joey and the others began to set up defenses against
Speaker 1: the remaining guards, and some of the boys began to
Speaker 1: destroy whatever they could. Sirens wailed in the distance. When
Speaker 1: the fire department arrived, one of the men shouted to
Speaker 1: the boys asking if they were okay they were. The
Speaker 1: boys replied, the fire was out and no one was hurt.
Speaker 1: The superintendent and police demanded the boys surrender and come out.
Speaker 1: As you can imagine, though the boys had trust issues.
Speaker 1: They declined by sneaking around the corner, grabbing the fire
Speaker 1: hose and paurning it on the men. My nightfall, swarms
Speaker 1: of state police showed up. Outnumbered and without a plan
Speaker 1: and no food, the boys surrendered and were taken away.
Speaker 1: They ended up at the Bridgewater State Hospital for the
Speaker 1: criminally Insane, which was more of a prison than a hospital.
Speaker 1: Two days later they appeared in court. Eight boys were
Speaker 1: kept imprisoned at Bridgewater indefinitely. The boys, all of them,
Speaker 1: were labeled as dangerous, but the public, now having heard
Speaker 1: and seen what treatment they had endured, called for changes.
Speaker 1: They were slow in coming. It took a lawsuit in
Speaker 1: the early nineteen seventies for the institution to hire adequate
Speaker 1: and qualified staff. Finally, Fernald closed its doors in the
Speaker 1: state of Massachusetts hired Sandra Marlowe to create a library
Speaker 1: at the Fernald Institute, honoring Samuel Howe. Being the oldest
Speaker 1: and largest mental institution in the Northeast, Sandra had a
Speaker 1: lot of material to sift through, making her task more difficult.
Speaker 1: She didn't have a background in the history of mental health.
Speaker 1: For that, she relied on the locals and former resident
Speaker 1: turned institute bus driver Joey Almeida. A While Joey helped
Speaker 1: her sift through countless documents, Sandra listened to his stories
Speaker 1: and became more interested in Fernald's history. Freddie Boyce, who
Speaker 1: still lived nearby, also offered his assistance. One afternoon, the
Speaker 1: three came across a letter from a former superintendent to
Speaker 1: a parent requesting their son's participation in a nutritional study
Speaker 1: noted as the Science Club. Participation was listed as voluntary,
Speaker 1: of course, if the parents agreed, the test would require
Speaker 1: blood samples after the child consumed a predetermined amount of calcium.
Speaker 1: Those in the study would get additional perks, baseball games
Speaker 1: in an extra quart of milk every day. Sandra hadn't
Speaker 1: been told about any study and kept digging. What she
Speaker 1: found shocked her. Some parents had agreed, but others either
Speaker 1: did not or didn't care to respond. Either way, the
Speaker 1: school selected additional participants without their knowledge or consent. In
Speaker 1: society considered these children invisible or disposable, no one would
Speaker 1: care or even notice. The study had little to do
Speaker 1: with the effects of calcium, though it was funded by
Speaker 1: Quaker oats and run by M. I. T. The children
Speaker 1: were fed cereal that had milk tainted with radioactive calcium.
Speaker 1: The researchers wanted to know how a serial heavy diet
Speaker 1: might affect the body's ability to digest iron and calcium.
Speaker 1: The radioactive calcium made it possible to trace the material
Speaker 1: and the digestive tract through blood and waste. The Quaker
Speaker 1: wanted evidence that their cereal was nutritionally on par with
Speaker 1: a competitor cream of wheat. Of course, the experiment bombed.
Speaker 1: All forty boys who participated suffered ill effects, and the
Speaker 1: Quaker canceled the experiment. Sandra couldn't believe what they had found,
Speaker 1: and suddenly the school was replacing her with another librarian
Speaker 1: to finish the job. Worried the documents and evidence would
Speaker 1: soon disappear, Sandra and the men went back to the
Speaker 1: school in the cover of darkness. For hours, they sifted
Speaker 1: through boxes and books, taking proof of the experiment with them.
Speaker 1: After she was fired, Sandra remained determined to bring justice
Speaker 1: for the victims. When Dr Clemens Benda, the head of
Speaker 1: Fernald's laboratory, died. Sandra came up with a plan. She
Speaker 1: met with Freddie and Joey at doctor Bende's estate sale.
Speaker 1: Assandra wandered through the rows of items. Freddie and Joey
Speaker 1: snuck up to the attic to see what else they
Speaker 1: could find. The men stuffed pages of experiment documentation into
Speaker 1: books that they then bought. One document listed the names
Speaker 1: of all forty test subjects. In nineteen ninety eight, a
Speaker 1: small group of Fernald survivors filed suit against Quaker Oats
Speaker 1: and m I. T. The scandal was an embarrassment for
Speaker 1: both the college and the company. The Quaker Oats immediately
Speaker 1: put out a statement denying that had a leading part
Speaker 1: and only provided the grant money, and Oats of claiming
Speaker 1: the radioactive calcium had been m i T s idea.
Speaker 1: The judge didn't see it that way. He ordered the
Speaker 1: college and the company together to make a settlement of
Speaker 1: one point eight five million dollars and divided up among
Speaker 1: the thirty remaining survivors. There's more to this story. Stick
Speaker 1: around after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.
Speaker 1: The day was unseasonably warm on March second of nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty five. The students at Booker T. Washington High School
Speaker 1: didn't mind. Though school had led out early. Fifteen year
Speaker 1: old Claudette made her way to the city bus stop.
Speaker 1: After a short wait, she boarded, careful to stick to
Speaker 1: the rules for black people like her, sit at the
Speaker 1: back and don't make eye contact, don't touch, especially that
Speaker 1: when she was younger, a white boy had asked to
Speaker 1: touch her hands. Innocently enough, Claudette had offered an open palm.
Speaker 1: The boy's mother had stepped between them and backhanded Claudette
Speaker 1: across the Now the hard realities of segregation and racism
Speaker 1: in Montgomery, Alabama were an everyday occurrence. Claudette realized that
Speaker 1: many white Americans had little tolerance for black people and
Speaker 1: anyone else who didn't fit into their definition of acceptable.
Speaker 1: As a young child, she knew that some people thought
Speaker 1: the color of her skin made her less human. As
Speaker 1: more people boarded the bus, all Claudette wanted was to
Speaker 1: get home early enough to do her homework and her chores.
Speaker 1: Maybe she would even get in some free time before dinner.
Speaker 1: She lived with her great aunt and uncle, whom she
Speaker 1: loved as though they were her biological parents. Her dad
Speaker 1: had abandoned the family, and her mom faded from the
Speaker 1: picture when she found she couldn't afford her or her sister, Delphine.
Speaker 1: Ambitious and smart, Claudette had high hopes for her future.
Speaker 1: Many of her classmates had no idea what they wanted
Speaker 1: to do with their lives, but she had her sight
Speaker 1: set on becoming a civil rights attorney. As she sat
Speaker 1: on the bus that afternoon and staring out the window
Speaker 1: and contemplating a paper she had to write, she no
Speaker 1: the bus hadn't moved. The white section of the bus
Speaker 1: was full, and the bus driver ordered her and some
Speaker 1: other black passengers to give up their seats. Someone complied,
Speaker 1: but not all. The heavily pregnant woman sitting next to
Speaker 1: her refused, sparking something deep inside. Claudette had had enough.
Speaker 1: Black people weren't allowed to eat at the same lunch counters,
Speaker 1: or sit in the same movie houses as white people,
Speaker 1: or even enter some businesses. She was tired of being
Speaker 1: made to feel less than human. She wasn't less than
Speaker 1: anyone for any reason, and on that hot day, Claudett
Speaker 1: decided that she was going to make herself heard. Claudette
Speaker 1: and the pregnant woman had both paid the same fair
Speaker 1: everyone else had, and both women held their ground. The
Speaker 1: police were summoned, and although a black man gave up
Speaker 1: his seat for the pregnant woman, caught it refused to move.
Speaker 1: She didn't go quietly, shouting that her constitutional rights were
Speaker 1: being violent at it as police handcuffed her and physically
Speaker 1: removed her from the bus. The incident landed her in
Speaker 1: jail with charges of disturbing the peace, violating segregation laws,
Speaker 1: and assaulting a police officer. Though she hadn't assaulted anyone,
Speaker 1: Claudett wasn't the first nor the last black person to
Speaker 1: be dragged off a bus for not giving up their
Speaker 1: seat for a white person. Nine months later, Rosa Parks
Speaker 1: became the face of change when she refused to give
Speaker 1: up her seat, but Claudette's great aunt and uncle didn't
Speaker 1: have the money to get her out of jail. When
Speaker 1: the minister of the local church heard, he posted bail,
Speaker 1: telling her that she had brought a revolution to Montgomery.
Speaker 1: But months later, civil rights leaders didn't make an issue
Speaker 1: of Claudette's case. They felt most Americans wouldn't sympathize with
Speaker 1: her because she lived in a low income housing district,
Speaker 1: wasn't as polished as Rosa, then had darker skin. Even
Speaker 1: her great aunt told her to stay quiet and to
Speaker 1: let Parks be the voice because white people liked her.
Speaker 1: The juvenile court convicted Claudett on all three accounts. She
Speaker 1: appealed and the court dropped all charges except assault, despite
Speaker 1: testimony otherwise. Two months later, her attorney suggested she take
Speaker 1: part in a civil lawsuit against Alabama and Montgomery bus
Speaker 1: segregation laws. The next year, four other black women plaintiffs
Speaker 1: took part in the suit, though Claudette was the youngest.
Speaker 1: The case escalated to the Supreme Court, where she described
Speaker 1: her arrest, but she added more perspective. She told the
Speaker 1: court how dangerous it was for a black person to
Speaker 1: stand up for equal rights, how such actions were often
Speaker 1: met with extreme violence. She recounted how terrified she was
Speaker 1: in jail with guards who made remarks on her brass eyes.
Speaker 1: Claudet's testimony moved the court. They ordered Montgomery County and
Speaker 1: the entire state of Alabama to end bus segregation laws.
Speaker 1: There would be no hero is welcome, though her community
Speaker 1: branded her as a troublemaker after struggling to fit in
Speaker 1: and find employment, she moved to Manhattan, where she worked
Speaker 1: as a nurses aid. In two thousand four, she finally retired.
Speaker 1: In a two thousand five interview, she was asked if
Speaker 1: she would have changed her actions that day in Claudette
Speaker 1: didn't hesitate. I feel very proud of what I did,
Speaker 1: she responded, A fifteen year old had proven that when
Speaker 1: it comes to human rights, sometimes one person can make
Speaker 1: a difference. American Shadows as hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This
Speaker 1: episode was written by Michelle Muto, researched by Ali Steed,
Speaker 1: and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive
Speaker 1: producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn
Speaker 1: more about this show, visit Grim and Mild dot com.
Speaker 1: From more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
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