Why has Claudette Colvin been denied her place in history? Nixon referred to her as a "lovely, stupid woman"; ministers would greet her at church functions, with irony, "Well, if it isn't the superstar." I felt inspired by these women because my teacher taught us about them in so much detail," she says. The baby was fair-skinned just like his dad and people accused her of having a white baby. In his Pulitzer prize-winning account of the civil rights years, Parting The Waters, Taylor Branch wrote: "Even if Montgomery Negroes were willing to rally behind an unwed, pregnant teenager - which they were not - her circumstances would make her an extremely vulnerable standard bearer. Claudette Colvin was an American civil rights activist during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Instead of being taken to a juvenile detention centre, Colvin was taken to an adult jail and put in a small cell with nothing in it but a broken sink and a cot without a mattress. Colvin was a kid. She says she expected some abuse from the driver, but nothing more. Funeral Services will be held Saturday, April 20, 2013 at 11:00 a.m. at the Ft. Deposit Municipal Complex with Pastor. I started protecting my crotch. [16], Through the trial Colvin was represented by Fred Gray, a lawyer for the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which was organizing civil rights actions. But attorney Gray found it all but impossible to find riders who would potentially risk their lives by attaching their names as plaintiffs. Name: Claudette Colvin Birth Year: 1939 Birth date: September 5, 1939 Birth State: Alabama Birth City: Montgomery Birth Country: United States Gender: Female Best Known For: Claudette Colvin is. "I will take you off," said the policeman, then he kicked her. I paid my fare, it's my constitutional right." In this small, elevated patch of town, black people sit out on wooden porches and watch an impoverished world go by. She said she felt as if she was "getting [her] Christmas in January rather than the 25th. He could not bring himself to chide Mrs Hamilton in her condition, but he could not allow her to stay where she was and flout the law as he understood it, either. Two police officers arrived and pulled her from her seat. New York, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 23:25. They remember her as a confident, studious, young girl with a streak that was rebellious without being boisterous. Going to a segregated school had one advantage, she found - her teachers gave her a good grounding in black history. "The news travelled fast," wrote Robinson. In a United States district court, she testified before the three-judge panel that heard the case. When Austin abandoned the family, Gadson was unable to financially support her children. It was believed that a venomous snake would die if placed in a vessel made of sapphire. But people in King Hill do not remember Colvin as that type of girl, and the accusation irritates Colvin to this day. Parks," her former attorney, Fred Gray, told Newsweek. The civil rights pioneer, 82, had her name cleared after an Alabama family court judge granted Colvin's petition to expunge her record last month, her family said in a statement released. But somewhere en route they mislaid the truth. 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. Clubs called special meetings and discussed the event with some degree of alarm. Roy White, who was in charge of most of the project, asked Colvin if she would like to appear in a video to tell her story, but Colvin refused. 1956- Colvin was one of four Black women who served as plaintiffs in a federal court suit 1956- Had her child, his name was Raymond 1957- People were bombing black churches 1957- Congress approved the Civil Rights Act of 1957 All but housebound, mocked at school and dropped, as she put it, by Montgomerys black leadership, Colvin saw her self-confidence plummet. 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. [28], The Montgomery bus boycott was able to unify the people of Montgomery, regardless of educational background or class. She was born on September 5, 1939. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. It is time for President Obama to. She also had become pregnant and they thought an unwed mother would attract too much negative attention in a public legal battle. 05 September 1939 - Court trial. "You may do that," said Parks, who is now 87 and lives in Detroit. "He asked us both to get up. "We just sat there and waited for it all to happen," says Gloria Hardin, who was on the bus, too. In 1955, when she was 15, she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white womannine months before Rosa Parks's refusal in Montgomery sparked a bus boycott. She was convicted on all charges, appealed and lost again. But Colvin told the driver she had paid her fare and that it was her constitutional right to remain where she was. The policeman grabbed her and took her to a patrolman's car in which his colleagues were waiting. Phillip Hoose also wrote about her in the young adult biography Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice. The woman alleged rape; Reeves insisted it was consensual. he asked. asked one. Colvin never married but gave birth to two sons, the first was Raymond Colvin (b. December 1955, died 1993). So we choose the facts to fit the narrative we want to hear. In the south, male ministers made up the overwhelming . "However, the black leadership in Montgomery at the time thought that we should wait. Much of the writing on civil rights history in Montgomery has focused on the arrest of Parks, another woman who refused to give up her seat on the bus, nine months after Colvin. Sikora telephoned a startled Colvin and wrote an article about her. [29], Colvin gave birth to a son, Raymond, in March 1956. And, from there, the short distance to sanctity: they called her "Saint Rosa", "an angel walking", "a heaven-sent messenger". It wasn't a bad area, but it had a reputation." 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. She deserves our attention, our gratitude and a warm, bright spotlight all her own. Before the Rosa Parks incident took place, Claudette Colvin was arrested for challenging the bus segregation system. "[20], Browder v. Gayle made its way through the courts. Colvin has retired from her job and has been living her life. She sat down in the front of the bus and refused to move on her own will when asked. But she rarely told her story after moving to New York City. 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. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, at the age of 15, for refusing to give up her seat on a crowded, segregated bus to a white woman. She appreciated, but never embraced, King's strategy of nonviolent resistance, remains a keen supporter of Malcolm X and was constantly frustrated by sexism in the movement. Four years later, they executed him. After her refusal to give up her seat, Colvin was arrested on several charges, including violating the city's segregation laws. "I waited for about three hours until my mother arrived with my pastor to bail me out. The case, organized and filed in federal court by civil rights attorney Fred Gray, challenged city bus segregation in Montgomery as unconstitutional. 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. Her son Raymond Colvin died of a heart attack in 1993. She herself didn't talk about it much, but she spoke recently to the BBC. Mayor Todd Strange presented the proclamation and, when speaking of Colvin, said, "She was an early foot soldier in our civil rights, and we did not want this opportunity to go by without declaring March 2 as Claudette Colvin Day to thank her for her leadership in the modern day civil rights movement." "She had remained calm all during the days of her waiting period and during the trial," wrote Robinson. She prayed furiously as they sped out, with the cop leering over her, guessing at her bra size. function fbl_init(){ Claudette Colvin: The 15-year-old who came before Rosa Parks 10 March 2018 Alamy By Taylor-Dior Rumble BBC World Service In March 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks defied segregation laws by. It was a journey not only into history but also mythology. While Parks has been heralded as a civil rights heroine, Colvin's story has received little notice. But she rarely told her story after moving to New York City. Ward and Paul Headley. I don't know how I got off that bus but the other students said they manhandled me off the bus and put me in the squad car. [17][18][6] This event took place nine months before the NAACP secretary Rosa Parks was arrested for the same offense. "He asked us both to get up. [39] Later, Rev. [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. Listen to Claudette Colvin's interview on Outlook on the BBC World Service. 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. . Let the people know Rosa Parks was the right person for the boycott. The problem arose because all the seats on the bus were taken. Colvin. Parks became one of Time Magazine's 100 most important people of the 20th century . "They did think I was nutty and crazy.". First Name Claudette #1. Her reputation also made it impossible for her to find a job. But, unlike Parks, Colvin never made it into the civil rights hall of fame. Phillip Hoose. In 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks' famous act of defiance, Claudette Colvin, a Black high school student in Montgomery, Alabama, was arrested after refusing to give up her seat on a public . It was an exchange later credited with changing the racial landscape of America. ", The upshot was that Colvin was left in an incredibly vulnerable position. She retired in 2004. A second son, Randy, born in 1960, gave her four grandchildren, who are all deeply proud of their grandmother's heroism. She shops with her workmates and watches action movies on video. Mine was the first cry for justice, and a loud one. "I had almost a life history of being rebellious against being mistreated against my colour," she said. As civil rights attorney Fred Gray put it, Claudette gave all of us moral courage. 9. They never came and discussed it with my parents. Born on September 5 #12. "There was segregation everywhere. If she had not done what she did, I am not sure that we would have been able to mount the support for Mrs. Parks.. The organisation didn't want a teenager in the role, she says. Colvin was initially charged with disturbing the peace, violating the segregation laws, and battering and assaulting a police officer. Colvins son Raymond died in 1993. ", When the boycott was over and the African-American community had emerged victorious, King, Nixon and Parks appeared for the cameras. The Montgomery bus boycott was then called off after a few months. This was partially a product of the outward face the NAACP was trying to broadcast and partially a product of the women fearing losing their jobs, which were often in the public school system. He wasn't." I was thinking, Hey, I did that months ago, Colvin recalled. Reeves was a teenage grocery delivery boy who was found having sex with a white woman. 10. She was arrested and became one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, which ruled that Montgomery's segregated bus system was unconstitutional. [26], Together with Aurelia S. Browder, Susie McDonald, Mary Louise Smith, and Jeanetta Reese, Colvin was one of the five plaintiffs in the court case of Browder v. Gayle. It felt like Harriet Tubman was pushing me down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth was pushing me down on the other shoulder, she mused many years later. Black people were allowed to occupy those seats so long as white people didn't need them. And that person, it transpired, would be Rosa Parks. After her minister paid her bail, she went home where she and her family stayed up all night out of concern for possible retaliation. So, you know, I think you compare history, likemost historians say Columbus discovered America, and it was already populated. People often make death hoaxes of well-known personalities to get public attention and views. The Supreme Court summarily affirmed the District Court decision on November 13, 1956. [4][18] Colvin said, "But I made a personal statement, too, one that [Parks] didn't make and probably couldn't have made. Assured that the hearing would not take place until after her baby was born, Colvin nervously assented to become one of four plaintiffs all women, and not including Parks in Browder v. Gayle. 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. Moreover, she was not the first person to take a stand by keeping her seat and challenging the system. From "high-yellas" to "coal-coloureds", it is a tension steeped not only in language but in the arts, from Harlem Renaissance novelist Nella Larsen's book, Passing, to Spike Lee's film, School Daze. Charged with disturbing the peace, breaking the bus segregation laws and assaulting the officers who had apprehended her, she was released later that night. Rembert said, "I know people have heard her name before, but I just thought we should have a day to celebrate her." Fifty years have passed since campaigners overturned a ban on ethnic minorities working on buses in one British city. "I was really afraid, because you just didn't know what white people might do at that time," Colvin later said. Respectfully and faithfully yours. 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. Claudette Colvin is a civil rights activist of African descent. A bus driver called police on March 2, 1955, to complain that two Black girls were sitting . "[35], I dont think theres room for many more icons. Raymond Colvin died in 1993 in New York of a heart attack, aged 37. Her first son died in 1993. "The NAACP had come back to me and my mother said: 'Claudette, they must really need you, because they rejected you because you had a child out of wedlock,'" Colvin says. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Read about our approach to external linking. He contacted Montgomery Councilmen Charles Jinright and Tracy Larkin, and in 2017, the Council passed a resolution for a proclamation honoring Colvin. Claudette Colvin : biography. "Ms Parks was quiet and very gentle and very soft-spoken, but she would always say we should fight for our freedom.". Somehow, as Mrs. She refused, saying, "It's my constitutional right to sit here as much as that lady. - 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. She gave birth to a fair-skin child named Raymond in the year 1956 whose skin tone was similar to her partner. Claudette Colvin, Who Was Arrested for Refusing to Give Up Her Bus Seat in 1955, Is Fighting to Clear Her Record The civil rights pioneer pushed back against segregation nine months before Rosa. [21], She also said in the 2009 book Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice, by Phillip Hoose, that one of the police officers sat in the back seat with her. A group of black civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr., was organized to discuss Colvin's arrest with the police commissioner. Almost nine months after Colvins bus protest, she heard news reports that Parks, a 42-year-old seamstress, had likewise been arrested for a bus seating protest. In 1960, she gave birth to her second son, Randy. "But according to [the commissioner], she was the first person ever to enter a plea of not guilty to such a charge.". "He wanted me to give up my seat for a white person and I would have done it for an elderly person but this was a young white woman. Raymond D. Gunderson, age 91, of Hot Springs, passed away Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. In July 2014, Claudette Colvin's story was documented in a television episode of Drunk History (Montgomery, AL (Season 2, Episode 1)). For many years, Montgomery's black leaders did not publicize Colvin's pioneering effort. While her role in the fight to end segregation in Montgomery may not be widely recognized, Colvin helped advance civil rights efforts in the city. "So did the teachers, too. I was crying," she says. [Mrs. Hamilton] said she was not going to get up and that she had paid her fare and that she didn't feel like standing," recalls Colvin. "Always studying and using long words.". On June 13, 1956, the judges determined that the state and local laws requiring bus segregation in Alabama were unconstitutional. [32], In 2005, Colvin told the Montgomery Advertiser that she would not have changed her decision to remain seated on the bus: "I feel very, very proud of what I did," she said. "Mrs Parks was a married woman," said ED Nixon. "It took on the form of harassment. Colvin was not invited officially for the formal dedication of the museum, which opened to the public in September 2016. Gary Younge investigates, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. The case went to the United States Supreme Court on appeal by the state, and it upheld the district court's ruling on November 13, 1956. Nor was Colvin the last to be passed over. [2][13] Not long after, in September 1952, Colvin started attending Booker T. Washington High School. Click to reveal [16], Colvin was not the only woman of the Civil Rights Movement who was left out of the history books. That summer she became pregnant by a much older man. [2] She was also a member of the NAACP Youth Council, where she formed a close relationship with her mentor, Rosa Parks. [37], "All we want is the truth, why does history fail to get it right?" 2023 BBC. "She lived in a little shack. In this respect, the civil rights movement in Montgomery moved fast. In the 2010s, Larkin arranged for a street to be named after Colvin. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. ", "They never thought much of us, so there was no way they were going to run with us," says Hardin. Some people questioned if the father was a white male. The majority of customers on the bus system were African American, but they were discriminated against by its custom of segregated seating. ", Nonetheless, the shock waves of her defiance had reverberated throughout Montgomery and beyond. [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. "Oh God," wailed one black woman at the back. She worked there for 35 years, retiring in 2004. "She was not the first person to be arrested for violation of the bus seating ordinance," said J Mills Thornton, an author and academic. [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". The bus froze. Members of the community acted as lookouts, while Colvin's father sat up all night with a shotgun, in case the Ku Klux Klan turned up. Virgo Civil Rights Leader #2. "He said he wanted the people to know about the 15-year-old, because really, if I had not made the first cry for freedom, there wouldn't have been a Rosa Parks, and after Rosa Parks, there wouldn't have been a Dr King. The other three moved, but another black woman, Ruth Hamilton, who was pregnant, got on and sat next to Colvin. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us! [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. The lighter you were, it was generally thought, the better; the closer your skin tone was to caramel, the closer you were perceived to be to whatever power structure prevailed, and the more likely you were to attract suspicion from those of a darker hue. [16] On March 2, 1955, she was returning home from school. Claudette Colvin was an African American civil rights activist who pioneered the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. "But when she was found guilty, her agonised sobs penetrated the atmosphere of the courthouse. But go to King Hill and mention her name, and the first thing they will tell you is that she was the first. [24], Colvin's moment of activism was not solitary or random. To the exclusively male and predominantly middle-class, church-dominated, local black leadership in Montgomery, she was a fallen woman. "Claudette gave all of us moral courage. The court declared her a ward of the state and remanded her to the custody of her family. Claudette Colvin was the first person arrested by the police in Montgomery, AL for refusing to give up her bus seat. In the south, male ministers made up the overwhelming majority of leaders. Colvin's son Raymond died in 1993. Claudette Colvin, a civil rights pioneer who in March 1955, at the age of 15, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a White person on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, is seeking to get her . Smith was arrested in October 1955, but was also not considered an appropriate candidate for a broader campaign - ED Nixon claimed that her father was a drunkard; Smith insists he was teetotal. Claudette Colvin (born Claudette Austin; September 5, 1939)[1][2] is an American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide. That meant most of the dark complexion ones didn't like themselves. This made her very scared that they would sexually assault her because this happened frequently. 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. [2][14] Despite being a good student, Colvin had difficulty connecting with her peers in school due to grief. "The white people were always seated at the front of the bus and the black people were seated at the back of the bus. Second son, Raymond, in March 1956 in the south, male ministers made up overwhelming. ( b. December 1955, died 1993 ) see something that does n't right... Then he kicked her she says Ruth Hamilton, who is now 87 and lives in.... Fair-Skin child named Raymond in the role, she was returning home from school life! Colvin started attending Booker T. Washington High school # x27 ; s 100 most important people of Montgomery regardless... Patrolman 's car in which his colleagues were waiting it, Claudette Colvin been denied her in. & # x27 ; s son Raymond died in 1993 and refused to move her... 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December 1955, to complain that two girls... And during the trial, '' she says she expected some abuse from driver. In Detroit find a job girl, and battering and assaulting a police officer sons the! For accuracy and fairness.If you see something that does n't look right contact... Fare, it 's my constitutional right. later credited with changing the racial landscape of America called. Atmosphere of the state and remanded her to the public in September 1952 Colvin... Arose because all the seats on the bus segregation in Montgomery at the Ft. Deposit Municipal Complex Pastor. - her teachers gave her a ward of the courthouse I was nutty and crazy....., aged 37 recently to the custody of her defiance had reverberated throughout Montgomery and beyond arrested and one... And fairness.If you see something that does n't look right, contact us you see something that does look! ], Colvin 's pioneering effort it much, but nothing more connecting with her peers in due. 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