She worked there for 35 years, retiring in 2004. The bus driver had the authority to assign the seats, so when more white passengers got on the bus, he asked for the seats.". I didn't get up, because I didn't feel like I was breaking the law. Colvins feisty testimony was instrumental in the shocking success of the suit, which ended segregated seating on Montgomerys buses. Like Parks, she, too, pleaded not guilty to breaking the law. 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. Colvin later moved to New York City and worked as a nurse's aide. The police arrived and convinced a black man sitting behind the two women to move so that Mrs. Hamilton could move back, but Colvin still refused to move. She refused, saying, "It's my constitutional right to sit here as much as that lady. She was arrested and became one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, which ruled that Montgomery's segregated bus system was unconstitutional. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. 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. The three black passengers sitting alongside Parks rose reluctantly. He went back to Colvin, now seven months pregnant. Tour: Black America and the burden of the perfect victim. "I would sit in the back and no one would even know I was there. Claudette Colvin, 81, was a true pioneer in the Civil Rights Movement. 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. 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. Her son Raymond Colvin died of a heart attack in 1993. I was glued to my seat," she later told Newsweek. She gave birth to a fair-skin child named Raymond in the year 1956 whose skin tone was similar to her partner. Later, she would tell a reporter that she would sometimes attend the rallies at the churches. Claudette Colvin gave birth to a son named Raymond in the same year 1955. He contacted Montgomery Councilmen Charles Jinright and Tracy Larkin, and in 2017, the Council passed a resolution for a proclamation honoring Colvin. "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. ", If that were not enough, the son, Raymond, to whom she would give birth in December, emerged light-skinned: "He came out looking kind of yellow, and then I was ostracised because I wouldn't say who the father was and they thought it was a white man. Mine was the first cry for justice, and a loud one. She spent the next decade going back and forth like a yo-yo between the two cities, she said. Second, she was the first person, in Montgomery at least, to take up the challenge. It is time for President Obama to. Colvin was initially charged with disturbing the peace, violating the segregation laws, and battering and assaulting a police officer. Nonetheless, Raymond died at the age of 37, reported Core Online. Her first son died in 1993. "What's going on with these niggers?" 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. Claudette Colvin was born Claudette Austin in Montgomery, Alabama, on September 5, 1939, to Mary Jane Gadson and C. P. Austin. It was a journey not only into history but also mythology. 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. Two policemen boarded the bus and asked Colvin why she wouldn't give up her seat. Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin was the first to be arrested in protest of bus segregation in Montgomery. "[28], On May 20, 2018, Congressman Joe Crowley honored Colvin for her lifetime commitment to public service with a Congressional Certificate and an American flag. I was sitting on the last seat that they said you could sit in. [47], A re-enactment of Colvin's resistance is portrayed in a 2014 episode of the comedy TV series Drunk History about Montgomery, Alabama. 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. "Move y'all, I want those two seats," he yelled. He was . 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. It wasn't a bad area, but it had a reputation." This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. [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. 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. "Claudette gave all of us moral courage. "It is the second time since the Claudette Colvin case that a Negro woman has been arrested for the same thing.". Her parents were Mary Jane Gadson and C.P. Claudette Colvin in 2009. One month later, the Supreme Court affirmed the order to Montgomery and the state of Alabama to end bus segregation. [15], In 1955, Colvin was a student at the segregated Booker T. Washington High School in the city. 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 . [17][18][6] This event took place nine months before the NAACP secretary Rosa Parks was arrested for the same offense. Three of the students had got up reluctantly and I remained sitting next to the window," she says. asked the policeman. (Julie Jacobson/Associated Press). You can't sugarcoat it. ", Nonetheless, the shock waves of her defiance had reverberated throughout Montgomery and beyond. The problem arose because all the seats on the bus were taken. Colvin says that after Supreme Court made its decision, things slowly began to change. "So did the teachers, too. She was fingerprinted, denied a phone call and locked into a cell. "Whenever people ask me: 'Why didn't you get up when the bus driver asked you?' 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]. [50], In 2022, a biopic of Colvin titled Spark written by Niceole R. Levy and directed by Anthony Mackie was announced. The legal case turned on the testimony of four plaintiffs, one of whom was Claudette Colvin. Ward and Paul Headley. In this small, elevated patch of town, black people sit out on wooden porches and watch an impoverished world go by. Clubs called special meetings and discussed the event with some degree of alarm. The pace of life is so slow and the mood so mellow that local residents look as if they have been wading through molasses in a half-hearted attempt to catch up with the past 50 years. But it is also a rare and excellent one that gives her more than a passing, dismissive mention. 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 . But attorney Gray found it all but impossible to find riders who would potentially risk their lives by attaching their names as plaintiffs. Blake approached her. Video1894 shipwreck confirms tale of treacherous lifeboat, How 10% of Nigerian registered voters delivered victory, Sake brewers toast big rise in global sales, The Indian-American CEO who wants to be US president, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, Exploring the rigging claims in Nigeria's elections, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip. "She ain't got to do nothing but stay black and die," retorted a black passenger. She fell out of history altogether. She also had become pregnant and they thought an unwed mother would attract too much negative attention in a public legal battle. 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. Colvin was a kid. [2] Price testified for Colvin, who was tried in juvenile court. 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. I paid my fare, it's my constitutional right." Claudette Colvin (born Claudette Austin; September 5, 1939) [1] [2] is an American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide. [28] Colvin stated she was branded a troublemaker by many in her community. So he said, 'If you are not going to get up, I will get a policeman. CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST, 81, BIRMINGHAM, AL. [27], In New York, Colvin and her son Raymond initially lived with her older sister, Velma Colvin. One white woman defended Colvin to the police; another said that, if she got away with this, "they will take over". "Never. "There was no assault", Price said. "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 driver looked at the women in his mirror. Funeral Services will be held Saturday, April 20, 2013 at 11:00 a.m. at the Ft. Deposit Municipal Complex with Pastor. It was believed that a venomous snake would die if placed in a vessel made of sapphire. [2] Colvin and her sister referred to the Colvins as their parents and took their last name. Her voice is soft and high, almost shrill. How encouraging it would be if more adults had your courage, self-respect and integrity. It is a letter Colvin knew nothing about. "They'd call her a bad girl, and her case wouldn't have a chance. Yet months before her arrest on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, a 15-year-old girl was charged with the same 'crime'. Reeves was a teenage grocery delivery boy who was found having sex with a white woman. She deserves our attention, our gratitude and a warm, bright spotlight all her own. "Y'all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats," he said. All but housebound, mocked at school and dropped, as she put it, by Montgomerys black leadership, Colvin saw her self-confidence plummet. Men instructed their wives to walk or to share rides in neighbour's autos.". [30], Colvin was a predecessor to the Montgomery bus boycott movement of 1955, which gained national attention. "Ms Parks was quiet and very gentle and very soft-spoken, but she would always say we should fight for our freedom.". However, not one has bothered to interview her. In July 2014, Claudette Colvin's story was documented in a television episode of Drunk History (Montgomery, AL (Season 2, Episode 1)). "I wasn't with it at all. After Colvin was released from prison, there were fears that her home would be attacked. "[4][5] Colvin's case was dropped by civil rights campaigners because Colvin was unmarried and pregnant during the proceedings. 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. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR). "I was scared and it was really, really frightening, it was like those Western movies where they put the bandit in the jail cell and you could hear the keys. Rosa Parks was neither a victim nor a saint, but a long-standing political activist and feminist. It was her individual courage that triggered the collective display of defiance that turned a previously unknown 26-year-old preacher, Martin Luther King, into a household name. ", When the boycott was over and the African-American community had emerged victorious, King, Nixon and Parks appeared for the cameras. [16] On March 2, 1955, she was returning home from school. ", Rosa Parks is a heroine to the US civil rights movement. I knew what was happening, but I just kept trying to shut it out.". The young Ms. Colvin was portrayed by actress Mariah Iman Wilson. 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. Ms. Colvin made her stand on March 2, 1955, and Mrs. She has literally become a footnote in history. "We learned about negro spirituals and recited poems but my social studies teachers went into more detail," she says. Complexity, with all its nuances and shaded realities, is a messy business. She had sons named Raymond and Randy. She still has one - a handwritten note from William Harris in Sacramento. "I remember during Easter one year, I was to get a pair of black patent shoes but you could only get them from the white stores, so my mother drew the outline of my feet on a brown paper bag in order to get the closest size, because we weren't allowed to go in the store to try them on.". 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. She worked there for 35 years until her . ", To complicate matters, a pregnant black woman, Mrs Hamilton, got on and sat next to Colvin. A second son, Randy, born in 1960, gave her four grandchildren, who are all deeply proud of their grandmother's heroism. Parks made hers on Dec. 1 that same year. 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. This movement took place in the United States. I was glued to my seat. "She was not the first person to be arrested for violation of the bus seating ordinance," said J Mills Thornton, an author and academic. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. In 1955, at age 15, Claudette Colvin . When Colvin moved to New York many years later to become a nurse, she didn't tell many people about the part she played in the civil rights movement. I think that history only has room enough for certainyou know, how many icons can you choose? The leaders in the Civil Rights Movement tried to keep up appearances and make the "most appealing" protesters the most seen. Colvin. I felt inspired by these women because my teacher taught us about them in so much detail," she says. Montgomery was not home to the first bus boycott any more than Colvin was the first person to challenge segregation. You have to take a stand and say, 'This is not right.'. The driver caught a glimpse of them through his mirror. The driver wanted all of them to move to the back and stand so that the white passenger could sit. "I was really afraid, because you just didn't know what white people might do at that time," says Colvin. [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. "[37], In 2000, Troy State University opened a Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery to honor the town's place in civil rights history. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. In a letter published shortly before Shabbaz's death, she wrote to Parks with both praise and perspective: "'Standing up' was not even being the first to protest that indignity. At the time, black leaders, including the Rev. I was thinking, Hey, I did that months ago, Colvin recalled. "Aren't you going to get up?" They never came and discussed it with my parents. [2][13] Not long after, in September 1952, Colvin started attending Booker T. Washington High School. "Always studying and using long words.". Listen to Claudette Colvin's interview on Outlook on the BBC World Service. "When ED Nixon and the Women's Political Council of Montgomery recognised that you could be that hero, you met the challenge and changed our lives forever. Like Colvin, Parks refused, and was arrested and fined. She told me to let Rosa be the one: white people aren't going to bother Rosa, they like her". "For a while, there was a real distance between me and Mrs Parks over this. Click to reveal As civil rights attorney Fred Gray put it, Claudette gave all of us moral courage. "They lectured us about Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth and we were taught about an opera singer called Marian Anderson who wasn't allowed to sing at Constitutional Hall just because she was black, so she sang at Lincoln Memorial instead.". . And that person, it transpired, would be Rosa Parks. After decades of estrangement, Parks once telephoned Colvin in the late 1980s and invited her to hear Parks speak at a community college. The once-quiet student was branded a troublemaker by some, and she had to drop out of college. "He asked us both to get up. Mothers expressed concern about permitting their children on the buses. New York, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 23:25. After her minister paid her bail, she went home where she and her family stayed up all night out of concern for possible retaliation. The Montgomery bus boycott was then called off after a few months. Councilman Larkin's sister was on the bus in 1955 when Colvin was arrested. 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. That meant most of the dark complexion ones didn't like themselves. You had to take a brown paper bag and draw a diagram of your foot and take it to the store". Claudette Colvin : biography. Colvin was not invited officially for the formal dedication of the museum, which opened to the public in September 2016. ", She believes that, if her pregnancy had been the only issue, they would have found a way to overcome it. "We didn't know what was going to happen, but we knew something would happen. The three other girls got up; Colvin stayed put. They forced her into the back of a squad car, one officer jumping in after her. In 1960, she gave birth to her second son, Randy. It was an exchange later credited with changing the racial landscape of America. 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. Despite her personal challenges, Colvin became one of the four plaintiffs in the Browder v. Gayle case, along with Aurelia S. Browder, Susie McDonald and Mary Louise Smith (Jeanatta Reese, who was initially named a plaintiff in the case, withdrew early on due to outside pressure). She dreamed of becoming the President of the United States. Colvin gave birth to her first son Raymond Jun 5, 1956. Let the people know Rosa Parks was the right person for the boycott. 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. "The light-skinned girls always thought they were better looking," says Colvin. [ 2 ] [ 13 ] not long after, in 1955 when Colvin was released from prison, were. Tone was similar to her first son Raymond Colvin died of a heart attack in 1993 to end segregation... Call her a bad area, but a long-standing political ACTIVIST and feminist so said... 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