You're listening to Radio Diaries, this is Joe, and we want to ring in the new year by introducing you to a new series.

It's called Gear. Brought to you by our fellow Radiotopians at Articles of Interest,

Gear explores the surprising intersection between the military and the outdoor industry.

You'll hear about how items like camo pants and field jackets went from the battlefield to big box stores,

and what it means for military culture to have so much influence on civilian life.

Plus, articles of interest will be coming out with new episodes exploring the wild stories hiding behind your fashion, from bras to tattoos.

Listen to gear and all of articles of interest wherever you get your podcasts or

at radiotopia.fm.

Radiootopia from PRX.

From PRX's Radiotopia, this is Radio Diaries. I'm Joe Richmond.

A little over a decade ago, producer Sarah Kate Kramer and I took the subway

up to the Bronx for an interview. The woman we were meeting lived in a small one-bedroom

in a sprawling apartment complex. She was living a quiet and somewhat anonymous life. But many

years earlier, she had done something remarkable. The woman's name was Claudette Colvin.

In 1955, she was a 15-year-old girl growing up in Montgomery, Alabama.

She went to a segregated school where she learned from her teacher about Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth,

and those lessons stuck in her mind.

And so in March 2nd of that year, Colvin refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a public bus, and she was arrested.

This was nine months before Rosa Parks would do the exact same thing.

But while Rosa Parks became an icon of the civil rights movement, Colvin spent most of her life in obscurity.

Claudette Colvin passed away this week at age 86. In the last years of her life, she became more

well-known as efforts were made to remember the unsung heroes of Black History. We're remembering

...