The story in three lines. In March 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery and was arrested. Civil-rights leaders decided not to build their campaign around her. She later became one of the four plaintiffs whose federal case actually ended bus segregation.

One question to ask. "Which line would you keep?" Then: "Were the leaders right?" A good answer can hold two things at once: that they had real reasons, and that a teenager paid for their choice.

One thing to do at the table. Ask everyone to name someone who did something first and got no credit, from history, a team, a family or a school. Then ask: who decides whose name is remembered?

The grown-up layer. The story avoids a moral on purpose; the question at the end belongs to the reader. Expect a teenager to be angry on Claudette's behalf, and expect the next question to be about the leaders. The Honest Page separates the court record from the reasons people gave later, which do not all agree. The legend it names, that Rosa Parks was a tired seamstress who acted on a whim, hides how much organising made the boycott possible.

Ask for the line before you offer yours.