Claudette Colvin

Claudette Colvin
Colvin in 1952
Born
Claudette Austin

(1939-09-05) September 5, 1939 (age 85)
Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.
Occupation(s)Civil rights activist, nurse aide
Years active1969–2004 (as nurse aide)
EraCivil rights movement (1954–1968)
Known forArrested at the age of 15 in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus, nine months before the similar Rosa Parks incident.
Children2

Claudette Colvin (born Claudette Austin; September 5, 1939)[1][2] is an American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide. 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.[3]

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 many years, Montgomery's black leaders did not publicize Colvin's pioneering effort. She has said, "Young people think Rosa Parks just sat down on a bus and ended segregation, but that wasn't the case at all."[4][5] Colvin's case was dropped by civil rights campaigners because she was unmarried and pregnant during the proceedings.[6][7] It is now widely accepted that she was not accredited by civil rights campaigners due to her circumstances. Rosa Parks said: "If the white press got ahold of that information, they would have [had] a field day. They'd call her a bad girl, and her case wouldn't have a chance."[6][8]

The record of Colvin's arrest and adjudication of delinquency was expunged by the district court in 2021, with the support of the district attorney for the county where the charges were brought more than 66 years earlier.

  1. ^ "Claudette Colvin". Biography.com. Retrieved January 29, 2018.
  2. ^ Gordon, Samantha (2015). Power Dynamics of a Segregated City: Class, Gender, and Claudette Colvin's Struggle for Equality (MA thesis). Sarah Lawrence College. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  3. ^ "Before Rosa Parks, Claudette Colvin Stayed in Her Bus Seat". aauw.org. American Association of University Women. March 21, 2012. Archived from the original on November 22, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Barnes was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Hoose, Phillip (2009). Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice. Melanie Kroupa Books. ISBN 978-1429948210.[page needed]
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Guardian1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Kramer, Sarah Kate (March 2, 2015). "Before Rosa Parks, A Teenager Defied Segregation On An Alabama Bus". NPR. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
  8. ^ "Claudette Colvin". The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks. May 18, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2021.