Monday, March 2 marked the 71st anniversary of the stand taken by 15-year-old Claudette Colvin on a bus in Montgomery; about nine months before Rosa Parks’s action sparked the iconic bus boycott.

While Claudette Colvin’s story is not widely known, the teenager’s contribution to social justice has been invaluable. It included her being one of the only four brave women who volunteered for the crucial court case that “saved the day” in transforming that formal system of White supremacy in the United States

Claudette Colvin died in January.

Over the past several years we have leveraged the Colvin milestone to encourage our community – especially teenagers – to reflect on the potential agency that we all possess. This, in light of the impact of peer pressure, especially among teens. To this end, public and private schools – senior and middle — have been supplied with specifically prepared primers for use by teachers in this regard.

The development of agency during the teenage years has been identified by psychologists as being critical in the evolution of the child into an adult. This capacity allows them to “think for themselves” and prepares them to eventually become the captains of their own ships.

One well-known 21st-century story is that of Greta Thunberg from Sweden who, almost a decade ago at 15, began a one-person vigil at her country’s Parliament regarding the existential matter of climate warming, sparking a global movement.

In Bermuda there a few stories also. One involved 15-year-old David Wingate, who, in 1953, was one of the team of three who rediscovered the cahow in difficult circumstances; a find that had global implications. Another story was that of Clyde Best.

In 1966, Clyde was a 15-year-old playing in Cup Match for Somerset Cricket Club. At 16, the versatile teenager was then called up to play for the Bermuda senior men’s football team for the 1967 Pan Am Games in Canada. The teenager’s performance proved to be critical in the team eventually beating Trinidad to move to the gold medal game against Mexico, when his header hit the woodwork, just minutes away from an unprecedented victory over a powerhouse team.

His performance drew international attention, leading to a call-up for a trial in 1968 aged 17 at West Ham United — one of England’s storied top-flight teams. This trial proved successful and Best eventually became one of West Ham’s most effective strikers. This, while negotiating a decadeslong ethos blocking Blacks in British sport. He became the most prominent of the few top-flight footballers in England when promoters of divisiveness were leveraging racism to capitalise for political ends.

In April, Bermuda residents will be able gain a more in-depth sense of the significance of Clyde’s amazing story when a film will premiere on-island.

• Glenn Fubler represents Imagine Bermuda