By Terry Manning
Back in my newspaper days, I had the good fortune to be asked to head up a special project commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Anyone could expect Rosa Parks and her iconic bus encounter to be covered, but she was an elusive target. Parks lived in Detroit — she had moved to Detroit not long after “standing up by sitting down” in a gesture that helped trigger the protest — so we concentrated on people still in the Montgomery area.
Our writers, editors, and artists began crafting what would be called “Voices of the Boycott.”
The special edition came together slowly. In addition to articles and historic photos, we interviewed and recorded many of the people who had helped conceive of the boycott, supported the boycott, and participated in the yearlong strike against Montgomery’s city buses. Our digital team even created a website to accompany the print product, which itself would be purchased and distributed nationally by Target (that’s a story for another day).
The videos on the site brought the stories to life, especially the story of Claudette Colvin.
Her story is slightly better known now, but back then many others and I had not heard of the teenager who experienced a Rosa Parks-type incident before Parks.
In March 1955, Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white patron on a Montgomery city bus. The local NAACP recognized the opportunity to challenge the city’s segregated bus policies, but they hesitated. Why? Colvin wasn’t the right victim.
She was Black, yes, female, yes, and the deferential treatment expected of the city’s Black bus riders towards the white bus riders was unconstitutional, also yes. But Colvin was a teenager, and she got pregnant after her arrest.
It sounds puritanical to even think about nowadays, but at the time it was a big deal to be an unwed teen mother. So the NAACP leaders decided to wait. Parks’ encounter in December of the same year gave them a better opportunity, strategically.
See, it’s not always enough to be on the wrong end of a bad decision or to fall prey to bad actors or immoral laws. Sometimes, to garner sympathy, you have to be the right victim.
Parks was an adult, married, a local professional seamstress, and likely some might have thought her fair complexion would make her story more palatable to certain segments in the community. History shows Montgomery’s local leaders ultimately made the right decision.
There’s something about how many perceive justice in this country that requires the right kind of victim. And if a person isn’t the right kind of victim, then some conclude maybe they deserved the fate that befell them.
It’s one reason El Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia is continually and consistently attacked by those in the Trump administration who don’t want him returned to this country, even though courts have ruled on his case and said he must be returned.
Abrego Garcia entered the country illegally in 2012, according to court documents cited by the BBC. He was arrested in 2019 for loitering and subsequently identified as belonging to MS-13, an International crime organization. Finding sufficient evidence to conclude Abrego Garcia was affiliated with the gang, a judge ordered him held despite his lawyers countering with the fact Abrego Garcia had no criminal record in El Salvador or the U.S.
He fought extradition then, saying that if he were returned to El Salvador, he would face “retribution” from a rival gang of MS-13. He was allowed to stay — until the Trump administration snatched him up as part of its intended crackdown on illegal immigrants.
He was sent to a notoriously corrupt prison in El Salvador while his wife and lawyers have fought to bring him home, saying he — and others caught up in the deportations — were denied due process.
The administration has even admitted Abrego Garcia’s detention was a mistake, but it’s one they refuse to correct. Instead, they point to his alleged gang affiliation, incidents of domestic violence, and posts on social media with images doctored to affirm an association with MS-13.
The fact is, Abrego Garcia is not an altar boy. But the U.S. Constitution says he doesn’t have to be, not to have rights that are supposed to be honored by the government, including a president who swore to uphold the Constitution.
But that won’t stop the daily onslaught on Abrego Garcia’s character. Trump and his “gang” know that if they can keep making him out to be a bad guy, their base will think he deserves being detained in some overseas hellhole.
For people to care about his case, Abrego Garcia shouldn’t have to be the right victim. He is a victim of a stupid, misguided, sloppily executed wrong. That should be enough.
Terry E. Manning is a Clemson graduate and worked for 20 years as a journalist. He can be reached at teemanning@gmail.com.
