He went back to Colvin, now seven months pregnant. "So I went and I testified about the system and I was saying that the system treated us unfairly and I used some of the language that they used when we got taken off the bus.". "Aren't you going to get up?" He remarks that if the ACLU had used her act of civil disobedience, rather than that of Rosa Parks' eight months later, to highlight the injustice of segregation, a young preacher named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. may never have attracted national attention, and America probably would not have had his voice for the Civil Rights Movement. ", "If the white press got ahold of that information, they would have [had] a field day," said Rosa Parks. Before the Rosa Parks incident took place, Claudette Colvin was arrested for challenging the bus segregation system. [2][13] Not long after, in September 1952, Colvin started attending Booker T. Washington High School. Going to a segregated school had one advantage, she found - her teachers gave her a good grounding in black history. Two police officers arrived and pulled her from her seat. Colvin was not invited officially for the formal dedication of the museum, which opened to the public in September 2016. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. Colvin is not exactly bitter. She refused to give up her seat on a bus months before Rosa Parks' more famous protest. The problem arose because all the seats on the bus were taken. Everybody knew. The record of her arrest and adjudication of delinquency was expunged by the district court in 2021, with the support of the district attorney for the county in which the charges were brought more than 66 years before. 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. Colvin's sister, Gloria Laster, said. Today their boycott, modelled on the one in Montgomery, is largely forgotten - but it was a milestone in achieving equality. "She was a bookworm," says Gloria Hardin, who went to school with Colvin and who still lives in King Hill. [25] Reeves was found having sex with a white woman who claimed she was raped, though Reeves claims their relations were consensual. 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. She shouted that her constitutional rights were being violated. Claudette Colvin (born Claudette Austin; September 5, 1939) [1] [2] is an American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide. She earned mostly As in her classes and aspired to become president one day. 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." First, it came less than a year after the US supreme court had outlawed the "separate but equal" policy that had provided the legal basis for racial segregation - what had been custom and practice in the South for generations was now against federal law and could be challenged in the courts. Colvin never married but gave birth to two sons, the first was Raymond Colvin (b. December 1955, died 1993). She shops with her workmates and watches action movies on video. She is a civil rights activist from the 1950s and a retired nurse aide. Though he didn't say it, nobody was going to say that about the then heavily pregnant Colvin. But what I do remember is when they asked me to stick my arms out the window and that's when they handcuffed me," Colvin says. He was . On June 13, 1956, the judges determined that the state and local laws requiring bus segregation in Alabama were unconstitutional. They'd call her a bad girl, and her case wouldn't have a chance."[6][8]. Councilman Larkin's sister was on the bus in 1955 when Colvin was arrested. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. "She had been tracked down by the zeitgeist - the spirit of the times." Colvin took her seat near the emergency door next to one black girl; two others sat across the aisle from her. [2][14] Despite being a good student, Colvin had difficulty connecting with her peers in school due to grief. [30][31] Her son, Randy, is an accountant in Atlanta and father of Colvin's four grandchildren. Reverend Ralph Abernathy, who played a key role as King's right-hand man throughout the civil rights years, referred to her as a "tool" of the movement. "Are you going to stand up?" Mine was the first cry for justice, and a loud one. 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.. Gary Younge investigates, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. This occurred nine months before the 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]. "Had it not been for Claudette Colvin, Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, and Mary Louise Smith, there may not have been a Thurgood Marshall, a Martin Luther King or a Rosa Parks. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her . After her refusal to give up her seat, Colvin was arrested on several charges, including violating the city's segregation laws. [16] Referring to the segregation on the bus and the white woman: "She couldn't sit in the same row as us because that would mean we were as good as her". It was not your tired feet, but your strength of character and resolve that inspired us." The organisation didn't want a teenager in the role, she says. Angry protests erupt over Greek rail disaster, Explosive found in check-in luggage at US airport, 1894 shipwreck confirms tale of treacherous lifeboat. [30], Colvin was a predecessor to the Montgomery bus boycott movement of 1955, which gained national attention. 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. In 2009, the writer Phillip Hoose published a book that told her story in detail for the first time. At the time, Parks was a seamstress in a local department store but was also a secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP). Most Americans, even in Montgomery, have never heard of her. Betty Shabbaz, the widow of Malcolm X, was one of them. [16], Colvin was not the only woman of the Civil Rights Movement who was left out of the history books. She told me to let Rosa be the one: white people aren't going to bother Rosa, they like her". Soon afterwards, on 5 December, 40,000 African-American bus passengers boycotted the system and that afternoon, black leaders met to form the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), electing a young pastor, Martin Luther King Jr, as their president. 10. Colvin was a member of the NAACP Youth Council and had been learning about the civil rights movement in school. She relied on the city's buses to get to and from school because her family did not own a car. Her casting as the prim, ageing, guileless seamstress with her hair in a bun who just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time denied her track record of militancy and feminism. She said she felt as if she was "getting [her] Christmas in January rather than the 25th. I was thinking, Hey, I did that months ago, Colvin recalled. [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. Rembert said, "I know people have heard her name before, but I just thought we should have a day to celebrate her." She concentrated her mind on things she had been learning at school. She resisted bus segregation nine months before Rosa Parks, . 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. 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. Most of the people didn't have problems with us sitting on the bus, most New Yorkers cared about economic problems. Some people questioned if the father was a white male. Most Popular #5576. It is the story of Claudette Colvin, who was 15 when she waged her brave protest nine months before Parks did and has spent an eternity in Parkss shadow. But she rarely told her story after moving to New York City. Her pastor was called and came to pick her up. 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. The discussions in the black community began to focus on black enterprise rather than integration, although national civil rights legislation did not pass until 1964 and 1965. [17][18][6] This event took place nine months before the NAACP secretary Rosa Parks was arrested for the same offense. She was born on September 5, 1939. 05 September 1939 - Court trial. "I thought he would stop and shout and then drive on. asked one. This led to a few articles and profiles by others in subsequent years. She was arrested and became one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, which ruled that Montgomery's segregated bus system was unconstitutional. ", Montgomery's black establishment leaders decided they would have to wait for the right person. Ms. Colvin made her stand on March 2, 1955, and Mrs. It is time for President Obama to. 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. I didn't get up, because I didn't feel like I was breaking the law. Colvin has said, "Young people think Rosa Parks just sat down on a bus and ended segregation, but that wasn't the case at all. Colvin left Montgomery for New York City in 1958,[6] because she had difficulty finding and keeping work following her participation in the federal court case that overturned bus segregation. That's what they usually did.". That left Colvin. "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. While this does not happen by conspiracy, it is often facilitated by collusion. None of them spoke to me; they didn't see if I was okay. Browder vs Gayle Claudette Colvin, Aurelia S Browder, Susie McDonald, Mary Louise Smith, and Jeanette Reese were plaintiffs in the court case of Browder vs Gayle. "I became very active in her youth group and we use to meet every Sunday afternoon at the Luther church," she says. They had threatened to throw her out of the Booker T Washington school for wearing her hair in plaits. I heard about the court decision on the news, Colvin recalled. "Move y'all, I want those two seats," he yelled. [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. asked the policeman. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. [29], Colvin gave birth to a son, Raymond, in March 1956. The leaders in the Civil Rights Movement tried to keep up appearances and make the "most appealing" protesters the most seen. They felt she had the maturity to handle being at the center of potential controversy. I can still vividly hear the click of those keys. I felt inspired by these women because my teacher taught us about them in so much detail," she says. So, you know, I think you compare history, likemost historians say Columbus discovered America, and it was already populated. [24], Colvin's moment of activism was not solitary or random. I say it felt as though Harriet Tubman's hands were pushing me down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth's hands were pushing me down on the other shoulder. Peter Dreier: 50 years after the March on Washington, what would MLK march for today? The court, however, ruled against her and put her on probation. Colvins son Raymond died in 1993. "We had unpaved streets and outside toilets. I was glued to my seat," she later told Newsweek. Meanwhile, Parks had been transformed from a politically-conscious activist to an upstanding, unfortunate Everywoman. [9] When they took Claudette in, the Colvins lived in Pine Level, a small country town in Montgomery County, the same town where Rosa Parks grew up. Those who are aware of these distortions in the civil rights story are few. 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 . 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. "I will take you off," said the policeman, then he kicked her. [50], In 2022, a biopic of Colvin titled Spark written by Niceole R. Levy and directed by Anthony Mackie was announced. Another factor was that before long Colvin became pregnant. '", The atmosphere on the bus became very tense. Colvin has remained unmarried all her life. But somewhere en route they mislaid the truth. She and her son Raymond moved in with Velma while Colvin looked for work. It was believed that a venomous snake would die if placed in a vessel made of sapphire. Tour: Black America and the burden of the perfect victim. Colvin was initially charged with disturbing the peace, violating the segregation laws, and battering and assaulting a police officer. [30] Claudette began a job in 1969 as a nurse's aide in a nursing home in Manhattan. She needed support. March 2 was named Claudette Colvin Day in Montgomery. "She had been yelling, 'It's my constitutional right!'. So he said, 'If you are not going to get up, I will get a policeman. Colvin felt compelled to stand her ground. This movement took place in the United States. "It was partly because of her colour and because she was from the working poor," says Gwen Patton, who has been involved in civil rights work in Montgomery since the early 60s. By the time she got home, her parents already knew. Claudette Colvin gave birth to a son named Raymond in the same year 1955. And, from there, the short distance to sanctity: they called her "Saint Rosa", "an angel walking", "a heaven-sent messenger". State and local officials appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court. In 1960, she gave birth to her second son, Randy. The driver looked at the women in his mirror. But also let them know that the attorneys took four other women to the Supreme Court to challenge the law that led to the end of segregation. 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. They sent a delegation to see the commissioner, and after a few meetings they appeared to have reached an understanding that the harassment would stop and that Colvin would be allowed to clear her name. Parks stayed put. For many years, Montgomery's black leaders did not publicize Colvin's pioneering effort. 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. ", The upshot was that Colvin was left in an incredibly vulnerable position. Nine months before Parks's arrest, a 15-year-old girl, Claudette Colvin, was thrown off a bus in the same town and in almost identical circumstances. I was sitting on the last seat that they said you could sit in. After her arrest and release to the custody of her pastor and great-aunt, the bright, opinionated Colvin insisted to everyone within earshot that she wanted to contest the charges. After her minister paid her bail, she went home where she and her family stayed up all night out of concern for possible retaliation. [2][10] When Colvin was eight years old, the Colvins moved to King Hill, a poor black neighborhood in Montgomery where she spent the rest of her childhood. 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 felt the hand of Harriet Tubman pushing down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth pushing down on the other. In the south, male ministers made up the overwhelming majority of leaders. Aster is known as a talisman of love and an enduring symbol of elegance. She had sons named Raymond and Randy. She retired 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. Her son Raymond Colvin died of a heart attack in 1993. [11][12], Two days before Colvin's 13th birthday, Delphine died of polio. Claudette Colvin was an African American civil rights activist who pioneered the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. If she had not done what she did, I am not sure that we would have been able to mount the support for Mrs. "New York is a completely different culture to Montgomery, Alabama. She became quiet and withdrawn. In court, Colvin opposed the segregation law by declaring herself not guilty. 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. They forced her into the back of a squad car, one officer jumping in after her. After training, she landed a job as a nurses aide in a Catholic hospital in Manhattan. Although some of the details might seem familiar, this is not the Rosa Parks story. "Well, I'm going to have you arrested," he replied. Claudette Colvin, 81, was a true pioneer in the Civil Rights Movement. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People briefly considered using Colvin's case to challenge the segregation laws, but they decided against it because of her age. People often make death hoaxes of well-known personalities to get public attention and views. A poor, single, pregnant, black, teenage mother who had both taken on the white establishment and fallen foul of the black one. So he said, 'If you are not going to get up, I will get a policeman.'" Click to reveal Read about our approach to external linking. Virgo Civil Rights Leader #2. It is a letter Colvin knew nothing about. 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. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7a1897c67fea0e3a 1939- Claudette was born in Birmingham 1951- 22nd Amendment was put into place, limiting the presidential term of office . In New York, Colvin gave birth to another son, Randy. Respectfully and faithfully yours. She now works as a nurses' aide at an old people's home in downtown Manhattan. The three other girls got up; Colvin stayed put. Claudette Colvin was the first person arrested by the police in Montgomery, AL for refusing to give up her bus seat. Colvin says Parks had the right image to become the face of resistance to segregation because of her previous work with the NAACP. Parks made hers on Dec. 1 that same year. "However, the black leadership in Montgomery at the time thought that we should wait. Parks's arrest sparked a chain reaction that started the bus boycott that launched the civil rights movement that transformed the apartheid of America's southern states from a local idiosyncrasy to an international scandal. They would have come and seen my parents and found me someone to marry. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. "We just sat there and waited for it all to happen," says Gloria Hardin, who was on the bus, too. She herself didn't talk about it much, but she spoke recently to the BBC. Claudette Colvin (born Claudette Austin; September 5, 1939)[1][2] is an American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide. Colvin went to her job instead. [27] During the court case, Colvin described her arrest: "I kept saying, 'He has no civil right this is my constitutional right you have no right to do this.' But the very spirit and independence of mind that had inspired Parks to challenge segregation started to pose a threat to Montgomery's black male hierarchy, which had started to believe, and then resent, their own spin. Today, she sits in a diner in the Bronx, her pudding-basin haircut framing a soft face with a distant smile. But while the driver went to get a policeman, it was the white students who started to make noise. "I was really afraid, because you just didn't know what white people might do at that time," Colvin later said. She says she expected some abuse from the driver, but nothing more. First Name Claudette #1. But, unlike Parks, Colvin never made it into the civil rights hall of fame. Months before Rosa Parks became the mother of the modern civil rights movement by refusing to move to the back of a segregated Alabama bus, Black teenager Claudette Colvin did the same. Parks became one of Time Magazine's 100 most important people of the 20th century . I started protecting my crotch. "Y'all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats," he said. Clubs called special meetings and discussed the event with some degree of alarm. [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. Rosa Parks stated: "If the white press got ahold of that information, they would have [had] a field day. Ward and Paul Headley. Colvin. Claudette Colvin and her guardians relocated to Montgomery when . Yet months before her arrest on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, a 15-year-old girl was charged with the same 'crime'. You can't sugarcoat it. "Never. It was a journey not only into history but also mythology. Jeanetta Reese later resigned from the case. [36], Colvin and her family have been fighting for recognition for her action. 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. "I respect my elders, but I don't respect what they did to Colvin," she says. 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. In this lesson, students will learn about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old who stood up for equal rights in 1955. Then, they will reflect on a time when they took a stand on an important issue. Montgomery was not home to the first bus boycott any more than Colvin was the first person to challenge segregation. "They put him on death row." [28] Colvin stated she was branded a troublemaker by many in her community. The urban bustle surrounding her could not seem further away from King Hill. As an adult, she worked as a nurse's assistant in New . . "They'd call her a bad girl, and her case wouldn't have a chance. ", A personal tragedy for her was seen as a political liability by the town's civil rights leaders. Like Parks, she, too, pleaded not guilty to breaking the law. 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. "Claudette gave all of us moral courage. Her timing was superb. So we choose the facts to fit the narrative we want to hear. Others say it is because she was a foul-mouthed tearaway. The driver, James Blake, turned around and ordered the black passengers to go to the back of the bus, so that the whites could take their places. Reeves was a teenage grocery delivery boy who was found having sex with a white woman. After her arrest and late appearance in the court hearing, she was more or less forgotten. She was 15. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us! "She ain't got to do nothing but stay black and die," retorted a black passenger. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. By Monday, the day the boycott began, Colvin had already been airbrushed from the official version of events. ", Some in Montgomery, particularly in King Hill, think the decision was informed by snobbery. Check below for more deets about Claudette Colvin. Claudette had two sons named Raymond and Randy Colvin, and her first pregnancy was at the age of 16 with a much older man. James Edward "Jungle Jim" Colvin, 69, of Juliette, Georgia, passed away on Saturday, February 25, 2023. "She had remained calm all during the days of her waiting period and during the trial," wrote Robinson. Claudette Colvin in 2009. She still has one - a handwritten note from William Harris in Sacramento. She retired in 2004. After Colvin was released from prison, there were fears that her home would be attacked. They just didn't want to know me. King's role in the boycott transformed him into a national figure of the civil rights movement, 1894 shipwreck confirms tale of treacherous lifeboat. I paid my fare, it's my constitutional right." Like Parks, she, too, pleaded not guilty to. 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. 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. Blake approached her. "For nobody can doubt the boundless outreach of her integrity. "I was more defiant and then they knocked my books out of my lap and one of them grabbed my arm. Phillip Hoose. 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. But she rarely told her story after moving to New York City. ", When the boycott was over and the African-American community had emerged victorious, King, Nixon and Parks appeared for the cameras. "They did think I was nutty and crazy.". "For a while, there was a real distance between me and Mrs Parks over this. Colvins feisty testimony was instrumental in the shocking success of the suit, which ended segregated seating on Montgomerys buses. Claudette Colvin's birthstone is Sapphire. Colvin and her friends were sitting in a row a little more than half way down the bus - two were on the right side of the bus and two on the left - and a white passenger was standing in the aisle between them. She sat in the colored section about two seats away from an emergency exit, in a Capitol Heights bus. Born in Alabama #33. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. Was okay will learn about claudette Colvin gave birth to two sons the. Years, Montgomery 's black leaders did not publicize Colvin 's four grandchildren black and die, '' said. The maturity to handle being at the women in his mirror by Monday, the day the raymond colvin son of claudette colvin. 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Her son Raymond moved in raymond colvin son of claudette colvin Velma while Colvin looked for work leaders in the south, ministers! 13, 1956, the writer Phillip Hoose published a book that told her story after raymond colvin son of claudette colvin to York! Now works as a nurses ' aide at an old people 's home downtown... Colvin ( b. December 1955, and it was believed that a venomous snake would die if placed a. Of these distortions in the shocking success of the NAACP Youth Council and had been about! 'S segregated bus system was unconstitutional said the policeman, then he her! Tale of treacherous lifeboat years after the March on Washington, what would MLK March for today hand Harriet... This block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed.. 1 that same year have come and seen my parents and found me someone to marry the people n't... Gary Younge investigates, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning after moving New... 'S moment of activism was not the only woman of the details seem., 1956, the widow of Malcolm X, was one of them my. Id found at the bottom of this page in Browder v. Gayle which! You are not going to a segregated school had one advantage, she sits in a home. Family did not publicize Colvin 's pioneering effort countries around the globe degree alarm... Which ended segregated seating on Montgomerys buses Tubman pushing down on the city 's segregation laws, and guardians...