I was glued to my seat," she later told Newsweek. Rosa Parks was thrown off the bus on a Thursday; by Friday, activists were distributing leaflets that highlighted her arrest as one of many, including those of Colvin and Mary Louise Smith: "Another Negro woman has been arrested and thrown in jail because she refused to get up out of her seat on the bus for a white person to sit down," they read. Colvin was the first person to be arrested for challenging Montgomery's bus segregation policies, so her story made a few local papers - but nine months later, the same act of defiance by Rosa Parks was reported all over the world. "I became very active in her youth group and we use to meet every Sunday afternoon at the Luther church," she says. "Always studying and using long words.". I was sitting on the last seat that they said you could sit in. [11][12], Two days before Colvin's 13th birthday, Delphine died of polio. "We learned about negro spirituals and recited poems but my social studies teachers went into more detail," she says. Nor was Colvin the last to be passed over. Colvin was also very dark-skinned, which put her at the bottom of the social pile within the black community - in the pigmentocracy of the South at the time, and even today, while whites discriminated against blacks on grounds of skin colour, the black community discriminated against each other in terms of skin shade. She was born on September 5, 1939. To sustain the boycott, communities organised carpools and the Montgomery's African-American taxi drivers charged only 10 cents - the same price as bus fare - for fellow African Americans. Today their boycott, modelled on the one in Montgomery, is largely forgotten - but it was a milestone in achieving equality. I was thinking, Hey, I did that months ago, Colvin recalled. "I didn't know if they were crazy, if they were going to take me to a Klan meeting. Claudette Colvin, 1953 Claudette Austin was born in Birmingham, Jefferson County, to Mary Jane Gadson and C. P. Austin on September 5, 1939.Her father abandoned the family, which included a sister, when she was a small child, and the two girls went to live in Pine Level, Montgomery County, with an aunt and uncle, Mary Anne and Q. P. Colvin.Both children took the Colvin name as their last name . Her son, Raymond, was born in March 1956. "In a few hours, every Negro youngster on the streets discussed Colvin's arrest. Charged with disturbing the peace, breaking the bus segregation laws and assaulting the officers who had apprehended her, she was released later that night. In this respect, the civil rights movement in Montgomery moved fast. The three other girls got up; Colvin stayed put. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us! Tour: Black America and the burden of the perfect victim. [28] Colvin stated she was branded a troublemaker by many in her community. "But when she was found guilty, her agonised sobs penetrated the atmosphere of the courthouse. Black people were allowed to occupy those seats so long as white people didn't need them. "We didn't know what was going to happen, but we knew something would happen. ", "They never thought much of us, so there was no way they were going to run with us," says Hardin. However, some white passengers still refused to sit near a black person. All I could do is cry. Officers were called to the scene and Colvin was forcefully taken off of the bus and . My mother knew I was disappointed with the system and all the injustice we were receiving and she said to me: 'Well, Claudette, you finally did it.'". In August that year, a 14-year-old boy called Emmet Till had said, "Bye, baby", to a woman at a store in nearby Mississippi, and was fished out of the nearby Tallahatchie river a few days later, dead with a bullet in his skull, his eye gouged out and one side of his forehead crushed. NPR's Margot Adler has said that black organizations believed that Rosa Parks would be a better figure for a test case for integration because she was an adult, had a job, and had a middle-class appearance. "I would sit in the back and no one would even know I was there. asked one. A second son, Randy, born in 1960, gave her four grandchildren, who are all deeply proud of their grandmother's heroism. ", Not so Colvin. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. In 2009, the writer Phillip Hoose published a book that told her story in detail for the first time. Rembert said, "I know people have heard her name before, but I just thought we should have a day to celebrate her." "I wasn't frightened but disappointed and angry because I knew I was sitting in the right seat.". As more white passengers got on, the driver asked black people to give up their seats. "Oh God," wailed one black woman at the back. However, her story is often silenced. Later, she would tell a reporter that she would sometimes attend the rallies at the churches. asked the policeman. Claudette Colvin was the first person arrested by the police in Montgomery, AL for refusing to give up her bus seat. Claudette Colvin was an African American civil rights activist who pioneered the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. For Colvin, the entire episode was traumatic: "Nowadays, you'd call it statutory rape, but back then it was just the kind of thing that happened," she says, describing the conditions under which she conceived. Everybody knew. "He asked us both to get up. "And since it had to happen, I'm happy it happened to a person like Mrs Parks," said Martin Luther King from the pulpit of the Holt Street Baptist Church. Three of the students had got up reluctantly and I remained sitting next to the window," she says. [30], Colvin was a predecessor to the Montgomery bus boycott movement of 1955, which gained national attention. [6][7] It is now widely accepted that Colvin was not accredited by civil rights campaigners at the time due to her circumstances. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Austin, but she was raised by her great-aunt and great-uncle, Mary Ann and Q.P. Sapphire was once thought to guard against evil and poisoning. That meant most of the dark complexion ones didn't like themselves. "She had remained calm all during the days of her waiting period and during the trial," wrote Robinson. "So I told him I was not going to get up, either. One incident in particular preoccupied her at the time - the plight of her schoolmate, Jeremiah Reeves. King's role in the boycott transformed him into a national figure of the civil rights movement, 1894 shipwreck confirms tale of treacherous lifeboat. She still has one - a handwritten note from William Harris in Sacramento. Colvins son Raymond died in 1993. She also had become pregnant and they thought an unwed mother would attract too much negative attention in a public legal battle. So, Colvin and her younger sister, Delphine, were taken in by their great aunt and uncle, Mary Anne and Q. P. Colvin whose daughter, Velma Colvin, had already moved out. ", They took her to City Hall, where she was charged with misconduct, resisting arrest and violating the city segregation laws. A group of black civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr., was organized to discuss Colvin's arrest with the police commissioner. King Hill, Montgomery, is the sepia South. Ms. Colvin in New York on Feb. 5, 2009. Rita Dove penned the poem "Claudette Colvin Goes to Work," which later became a song. Telephones rang. As civil rights attorney Fred Gray put it, Claudette gave all of us moral courage. [43] The judge ordered that the juvenile record be expunged and destroyed in December 2021, stating that Colvin's refusal had "been recognized as a courageous act on her behalf and on behalf of a community of affected people". In 1956, Colvin gave birth to a son, Raymond. Colvin could not attend the proclamation due to health concerns. I probably would've examined a dozen more before I got there if Rosa Parks hadn't come along before I found the right one. The urban bustle surrounding her could not seem further away from King Hill. [46], Young adult book Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, by Phillip Hoose, was published in 2009 and won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. 1939- Claudette was born in Birmingham 1951- 22nd Amendment was put into place, limiting the presidential term of office . Read about our approach to external linking. New York, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 23:25. James Edward "Jungle Jim" Colvin, 69, of Juliette, Georgia, passed away on Saturday, February 25, 2023. [17][18][6] This event took place nine months before the NAACP secretary Rosa Parks was arrested for the same offense. The NMAAHC has a section dedicated to Rosa Parks, which Colvin does not want taken away, but her family's goal is to get the historical record right, and for officials to include Colvin's part of history. - Claudette Colvin On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her parents were Mary Jane Gadson and C.P. In this lesson, students will learn about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old who stood up for equal rights in 1955. State and local officials appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court. [23] She was bailed out by her minister, who told her that she had brought the revolution to Montgomery. "Claudette gave all of us moral courage. ", To complicate matters, a pregnant black woman, Mrs Hamilton, got on and sat next to Colvin. 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. One month later, the Supreme Court affirmed the order to Montgomery and the state of Alabama to end bus segregation. "There was no assault", Price said. She told me to let Rosa be the one: white people aren't going to bother Rosa, they like her". The Montgomery bus boycott was then called off after a few months. However, not one has bothered to interview her. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. One month later, the Supreme Court declined to reconsider, and on December 20, 1956, the court ordered Montgomery and the state of Alabama to end bus segregation permanently. In the nine months between her arrest and that of Parks, another young black woman, Mary Louise Smith, suffered a similar fate. Civil Rights Leader #7. "It would have been different if I hadn't been pregnant, but if I had lived in a different place or been light-skinned, it would have made a difference, too. Raymond Colvin died in 1993 in New York of a heart attack at age 37. "If any of you are not gentlemen enough to give a lady a seat, you should be put in jail yourself," he said. But she rarely told her story after moving to New York City. "[37], In 2000, Troy State University opened a Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery to honor the town's place in civil rights history. Colvins feisty testimony was instrumental in the shocking success of the suit, which ended segregated seating on Montgomerys buses. The three black passengers sitting alongside Parks rose reluctantly. "They did think I was nutty and crazy.". . Her political inclination was fueled in part by an incident with her schoolmate, Jeremiah Reeves; his case was the first time that she had witnessed the work of the NAACP. 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. "They said they didn't want to use a pregnant teenager because it would be controversial and the people would talk about the pregnancy more than the boycott," Colvin says. Rosa Parks was neither a victim nor a saint, but a long-standing political activist and feminist. He wasn't." After training, she landed a job as a nurses aide in a Catholic hospital in Manhattan. Until recently, none of her workmates knew anything of her pioneering role in the civil rights movement. Colvin later moved to New York City and worked as a nurse's aide. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. For several hours, she sat in jail, completely terrified. [24] She was convicted on all three charges in juvenile court. She was arrested and became one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, which ruled that Montgomery's segregated bus system was unconstitutional. [36], Colvin and her family have been fighting for recognition for her action. When Ms Nesbitt, her 10th grade teacher, asked the class to write down what they wanted to be, she unfolded a piece of paper with Colvin's handwriting on it that said: "President of the United States. .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}How the Greensboro Four Began the Sit-In Movement, Biography: You Need to Know: Bayard Rustin, Biography: You Need to Know: Sylvia Rivera, Biography: You Need to Know: Dorothy Pittman Hughes, 10 Influential Asian American and Pacific Islander Activists. "I was really afraid, because you just didn't know what white people might do at that time," Colvin later said. Parks stayed put. Two more kicks soon followed. She retired in 2004. Taylor Branch. [15], In 1955, Colvin was a student at the segregated Booker T. Washington High School in the city. Colvin was not invited officially for the formal dedication of the museum, which opened to the public in September 2016. "They just dropped me. But, as she recalls her teenage years after the arrest and the pregnancy, she hovers between resentment, sadness and bewilderment at the way she was treated. "The white people were always seated at the front of the bus and the black people were seated at the back of the bus. "[33] "I'm not disappointed. An ad hoc committee headed by the most prominent local black activist, ED Nixon, was set up to discuss the possibility of making Colvin's arrest a test case. Virgo Civil Rights Leader #2. She refused to give up her seat on a bus months before Rosa Parks' more famous protest. Somehow, as Mrs. Born in Alabama #33. Claudette had two sons named Raymond and Randy Colvin, and her first pregnancy was at the age of 16 with a much older man. I think that history only has room enough for certainyou know, how many icons can you choose? In 2016, the Smithsonian Institution and its National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) were challenged by Colvin and her family, who asked that Colvin be given a more prominent mention in the history of the civil rights movement. Claudette Colvin's birth flower is Aster/Myosotis. Born on September 5 #12. It is time for President Obama to award Colvin the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor, to recognize her sacrifice and passionate dedication to social justice. When a white woman who got on the bus was left standing in the front, the bus driver, Robert W. Cleere, commanded Colvin and three other black women in her row to move to the back. Rule and Guide: 100 ways to more Success for only $8.67 Colvin was a predecessor to the Montgomery bus boycott movement of 1955, which gained national attention. On 2 March 1955, Colvin and her friends finished their classes and were let out of school early. She herself didn't talk about it much, but she spoke recently to the BBC. If the bus became so crowded that all the "white seats" in the front of the bus were filled until white people were standing, any African Americans were supposed to get up from nearby seats to make room for whites, move further to the back, and stand in the aisle if there were no free seats in that section. [2] Price testified for Colvin, who was tried in juvenile court. Colvin's sister, Gloria Laster, said. Nobody can doubt the height of her character, nobody can doubt the depth of her Christian commitment and devotion to the teachings of Jesus." "He asked us both to get up. ", "If the white press got ahold of that information, they would have [had] a field day," said Rosa Parks. "[22] Colvin was handcuffed, arrested, and forcibly removed from the bus. [4], "The bus was getting crowded, and I remember the bus driver looking through the rearview mirror asking her [Colvin] to get up for the white woman, which she didn't," said Annie Larkins Price, a classmate of Colvin. In New York, Colvin gave birth to another son, Randy. But people in King Hill do not remember Colvin as that type of girl, and the accusation irritates Colvin to this day. A memorial service will be held at 11:00 AM, Saturday, March 4, 2023, at East Juliette . Anything to detach herself from the horror of reality. Complexity, with all its nuances and shaded realities, is a messy business. You can't sugarcoat it. Clubs called special meetings and discussed the event with some degree of alarm. [48], In the second season (2013) of the HBO drama series The Newsroom, the lead character, Will McAvoy (played by Jeff Daniels), uses Colvin's refusal to comply with segregation as an example of how "one thing" can change everything. The policeman grabbed her and took her to a patrolman's car in which his colleagues were waiting. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her . The decision in the 1956 case, which had been filed by Fred Gray and Charles D. Langford on behalf of the aforementioned African American women, ruled that Montgomery's segregated bus system was unconstitutional. It was this dark, clever, angry young woman who boarded the Highland Avenue bus on Friday, March 2, 1955, opposite Martin Luther King's church on Dexter Avenue, Montgomery. It is this that incenses Patton. [50], In 2022, a biopic of Colvin titled Spark written by Niceole R. Levy and directed by Anthony Mackie was announced. As in 2023, Claudette Colvin's age is 83 years. The court, however, ruled against her and put her on probation. [16], Through the trial Colvin was represented by Fred Gray, a lawyer for the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which was organizing civil rights actions. It is a rare, and poor, civil rights book that covers the Montgomery bus boycott and does not mention Claudette Colvin. [2][14] Despite being a good student, Colvin had difficulty connecting with her peers in school due to grief. All but housebound, mocked at school and dropped, as she put it, by Montgomerys black leadership, Colvin saw her self-confidence plummet. In court, Colvin opposed the segregation law by declaring herself not guilty. The policeman arrived, displaying two of the characteristics for which white Southern men had become renowned: gentility and racism. You have to take a stand and say, 'This is not right.'. 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