Raynard Jackson Opinions on Editorials/Opinions Lane
Back to Main Lane
Jamal Bryant And the Black Community Fail The Claudette Colvin Test
By Raynard Jackson
AUGUST 19, 2026 - The late Claudette Colvin was Rosa Parks before Rosa Parks; unfortunately, she is barely a footnote in the annals of history.
She died on January 13th of this year at the ripe old age of eighty-six.
On March 2, 1955, she was arrested at the age of 15 in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a crowded, segregated bus. It occurred nine months before the similar, more widely known incident in which Rosa Parks, secretary of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), helped spark the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott.
Colvin was one of four plaintiffs in the first federal court case filed by civil rights attorney Fred Gray on February 1, 1956, as Browder v. Gayle, to challenge bus segregation in the city. In a United States district court, Colvin testified before the three-judge panel that heard the case. On June 13, 1956, the judges determined that the state and local laws requiring bus segregation in Alabama were unconstitutional. The case went to the United States Supreme Court on appeal by the state, which upheld the district court's ruling on November 13, 1956. One month later, the Supreme Court affirmed the order to Montgomery and the state of Alabama to end bus segregation. The Montgomery bus boycott was then called off after a few months. The court subsequently declared all segregation on public transportation unconstitutional.
For years Montgomery’s political elites hid Colvin’s role in ending segregation in Alabama—for all the right reasons. She was hidden from history because at the time of her arrest she was fifteen years old, pregnant, and unmarried.
Rosa Parks herself stated, "If the white press got a hold of that information, they would have a field day. They'd call her a bad girl, and her case wouldn't have a chance."
In other words, the Black community and its leaders enforced a standard within the Black community. Not binding by force of law but binding by community standards that were self-imposed.
They had to wait almost a year later before Parks came along. Parks was forty-two years old when she was arrested, married, gainfully employed and had years of experience in civil rights work.
In other words, she had the right reputation and temperament to be the face of this upcoming movement.
Herein lies the problem with today’s media appointed Black leaders. They have no code of conduct or standards. Thusly, how can we expect them to choose Blacks for various causes who have high standards when the ones doing the choosing are willfully and permanently flawed.
Jamal Bryant is Exhibit A for this type of self-appointed flawed Black leader.
I have known Bryant for decades and he started out as a real potential leader in the Baltimore community. But, unfortunately he could never control his carnal tendencies with his small head—even with all the scrutiny facing him, he still is living a reckless life and lifestyle.
He is NOT a leader, he is a he-der. He has appointed himself a leader.
He is a part of the clique of other self-appointed he-ders who are also recklessly flawed like Alfred Sharpton, Marc Morial, Derrick Johnson, Jasmine Crockett, Kamala Harris, Roland Martin, Joy Reid, Angela Why, Tiffany Cross, etc.
Not one of them could pass the Colvin standard!!! Not one.
What made Kamala Harris think it was a badge of honor to go on The Breakfast Club radio show and volunteer that she liked smoking marijuana? Why did she think that would endear her to the Black community enough to make them vote for her. She did not discuss or propose any legislation beneficial to the Black community, but spent a lot of time talking about her smoking weed.
You have Democrat operative Roland Martin interviewing a serious presidential candidate in 2016, Hillary Clinton, and he asks her “does she know how to do the wobble (a popular dance in the Black community)?”
He then begins to teach her to dance in front of a live audience on live TV. No policy, just theatrics and buffoonery.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, media clown, Steve Harvey interviewed Kamala Harris at the annual conference of 100 Black Liberal Men of America in Atlanta.
Harvey knew Harris lacked the intellect to answer serious questions, so he opened the interview by saying he and the Harris campaign had agreed to give her softball questions.
Don’t believe me? Click on the link above or read his words below!
"Before y’all start calling my radio show and DM-ing me talking about why you ain’t asked no hard- hitting questions - That ain’t what this is," Harvey said. "I’m throwing a lob. This is an alley-oop for a dunk. Because this administration needs to get the word out of what they’re actually doing and what they’re actually accomplishing, so we can stop all this foolishness about ‘What you doing for Black people?... You can't explicitly have an agenda just for Black people and expect to get in the White House. You got to play the game different. Y’all know what this is. So now this next question is another lob for her to dunk…See, I’m on this radio show, I’m hearing all these people talking about, ‘I’m not voting if they not doing nothing for us…Listen to me, if you do not vote, the analytics will show [it]," he said. "If we don't vote, how are we going to ask for something next time?"
You cannot make this up. The tragedy of it all was that Harvey had no idea how confidently stupid he sounded!!!
Another embarrassing self-appointed he-der is Wendell Anthony.
Anthony, head of Fellowship Chapel Church in Detroit, allowed California governor, Gavin Newsom to speak from the pulpit two weeks ago. Get this, a white radical liberal Democrat speaking to an audience of Blacks and he goes into this liberal creed about homosexual rights is the same as civil rights for Blacks, amnesty for illegals, and acceptance of people with mental issues—those who were born male and think they can become girls.
Not one policy proposal for Blacks, just a tirade of insults to the Black community in a Black church. And Anthony was on stage skinning and grinning because massa came to his church. That was his reward and by extension the reward for the Black community in Detroit.
Newsom’s words were like the sounding brass and the tinkling cymbal full of sound and fury signifying nothing!
Just because one has attained fortune and fame; titles and material gain; recognition and high positions does not mean you can pass the Colvin test.
What is the Colvin test?
The Colvin test is when one has all the right skill set and background, but is the wrong person for the mission at hand. Legally, Colvin’s arrest for refusing to give up her seat had the same fact pattern as Rosa Parks’ case.
Unlike Colvin, Parks’ character and integrity could not be questioned or challenged in federal court or the court of public opinion—she was married, had a job, and had civil rights experience!
One may have fortune and fame, but do they have a good name? One may have titles and material gain, but can they survive life when it rains? One may have recognition and high positions, but are they traveling on the road to God’s heavenly mission for their life?
I would submit to you that none of the people named above could pass the Colvin test. Any and every time they get out of line, the powers that be seem to anonymously reveal one of their scandals to the media.
Ask Roland Martin about this.
But just as important is the seeming unwillingness of the Black community to demand accountability of these media appointed he-ders.
Jamal Bryant, as a self-proclaimed preacher, has so much out of wedlock sex that even Bill Clinton is jealous! Two years ago Bryant went on a national homosexual apology tour claiming to represent all Black Christians. He said the Black church is homophobic.
Until the Black community gets back to a place where we hold our own people accountable for their behavior, we are in no position to hold white folks accountable for their behavior.
Everyday Blacks have tuned out every person listed above, unless they are members of the Black bourgeoisie, the boule, or the self-described talented tenth.
Blacks who are members of Bryant’s church in Atlanta go there for the theatrics. No “real” Christian could ever be a member of a church where the leader is literally a whore, pressure all the women he impregnates to get an abortion that he is willing to pay for, constantly promotes homosexuality, and attends some of the most debaucherous parties and orgies in America. All because he wants to see and be seen with secular celebrities like Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond, Lacrae.
There are many Blacks who could pass the Colvin test but unfortunately, they are not household names like they should be.
People like former New York Congressman, Floyd Flake, the late Bob Woodson, Bob Brown, David Steward, Jennifer Carroll, Roderick Burton, and Doug Wilder to name a few.
Just because you “can” do something legally or morally, does not mean that you should do it.
My good buddy the Apostle Paul and I discussed this issue over dinner this morning. He told me in Romans 14:16, “Let not then your good be evil spoken of.”
Claudette Colvin’s contribution to the civil rights movement is undeniable. She just could not be the face of the Montgomery movement because she did not meet the standards required by the Black community, not just the political elites.
Today’s media appointed leaders and the self-appointed he-ders have no connection to the grassroots in the Black community. The leaders of the radical liberal Democrat organizations like the National Urban League, the National Association for the Advancement of Certain People, the Black Economic Alliance, the National Association of Whack Journalists have absolutely no connection to the rank and file in the Black community.
People like Jamal Bryant, Alfred Sharpton, Roland Martin, Joy Reid, Hakeem Jeffries, Angela Why, etc., will never pass the Colvin test. But, that does not mean we should not hold them to the Colvin standard!
***
Raynard Jackson is a Pulitzer Award nominated columnist and President & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC, a Washington, DC based global public affairs consultancy. Feel free to visit his website at: www.raynardjackson.com. You can follow Raynard on Twitter @RealRaynardJ or Gettr @RaynardJackson.