ARTWORK > Prints/People

Claudette and Sojourner Ride the Bus-Out of Registration
Claudette and Sojourner Ride the Bus-Out of Registration
Linocut printed in 3 colors
18" x 24"
2020

I created this print for an exhibit celebrating the lives and contributions of women. The girl is 15 year old Claudette Colvin, and the old woman is Sojourner Truth. Claudette was the FIRST person to defy the Jim Crow law that pushed Black people to the back of the bus. She committed this act 9 months before Rosa Parks. She was dragged from the bus by police and arrested. She said her head was full of Black history, since she had a school teacher who expanded the subject into an entire month. She felt as if Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth were holding her down in her seat. I had first printed this in just black ink but then printed it in 3 colors, deliberately separating the colors so they are out of registration. It's a perhaps clumsy metaphor for the pain caused by racial segregation.