"Nobody slept at home because we thought there would be some retaliation," says Colvin. Two police officers arrived and pulled her from her seat. 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. 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. You had to take a brown paper bag and draw a diagram of your foot and take it to the store". A 15-year-old high school student at the time, Colvin got fed up and refused to move even before Parks. The full enormity of what she had done was only just beginning to dawn on her. "Oh God," wailed one black woman at the back. ", Everyone, including Colvin, agreed that it was news of her pregnancy that ultimately persuaded the local black hierarchy to abandon her as a cause clbre. 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). She was detained on March 2, 1955, in . Phillip Hoose. Colvins son Raymond died in 1993. "We walked downtown and my friends and I saw the bus and decided to get on, it was right across the road from Dr Martin Luther King's church," Colvin says. 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. So, you know, I think you compare history, likemost historians say Columbus discovered America, and it was already populated. She says she expected some abuse from the driver, but nothing more. Under the twisted logic of segregation the white woman still couldn't sit down, as then white and black passengers would have been sharing a row of seats - and the whole point was that white passengers were meant to be closer to the front. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. Astrological Sign: Virgo, Article Title: Claudette Colvin Biography, Author: Biography.com Editors, Website Name: The Biography.com website, Url: https://www.biography.com/activists/claudette-colvin, Publisher: A&E; Television Networks, Last Updated: March 26, 2021, Original Published Date: April 2, 2014, I knew then and I know now that, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. In 2009, the writer Phillip Hoose published a book that told her story in detail for the first time. State and local officials appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court. If one white person wanted to sit down there, then all the black people on that row were supposed to get up and either stand or move further to the back. Claudette Colvin's birth flower is Aster/Myosotis. 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." He was . 10. It is time for President Obama to. [2][13] Not long after, in September 1952, Colvin started attending Booker T. Washington High School. And that person, it transpired, would be Rosa Parks. I had been kicked out of school, and I had a 3-month-old baby.. He went back to Colvin, now seven months pregnant. ", She believes that, if her pregnancy had been the only issue, they would have found a way to overcome it. We used to have a lot of juke joints up there, and maybe men would drink too much and get into a fight. She and her son Raymond moved in with Velma while Colvin looked for work. The once-quiet student was branded a troublemaker by some, and she had to drop out of college. "It is he who decides which facts to give the floor and in what order or context. 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. The young Ms. Colvin was portrayed by actress Mariah Iman Wilson. When Colvin's case was appealed to the Montgomery Circuit Court on May 6, 1955, the charges of disturbing the peace and violating the segregation laws were dropped, although her conviction for assaulting a police officer was upheld. Colvin says Parks had the right image to become the face of resistance to segregation because of her previous work with the NAACP. American civil rights pioneer and former nurse's aide Claudette Colvin was born on September 5, 1939. image credit; BBC. Claudette Colvin (born September 5, 1939) is a retired American nurse aide who was a pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement. But it is also a rare and excellent one that gives her more than a passing, dismissive mention. She was arrested and became one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, which ruled that Montgomery's segregated bus system was unconstitutional. On March 2, 1955, Colvin was riding home on a city bus after school when a bus driver told her to give up her seat to a white passenger. Like Colvin, Parks was commuting home and was seated in the "coloured section" of the bus. "She had been yelling, 'It's my constitutional right!'. "I wasn't with it at all. After her minister paid her bail, she went home where she and her family stayed up all night out of concern for possible retaliation. 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. Complexity, with all its nuances and shaded realities, is a messy business. "Mrs Parks was a married woman," said ED Nixon. Her voice is soft and high, almost shrill. "I will take you off," said the policeman, then he kicked her. [15], In 1955, Colvin was a student at the segregated Booker T. Washington High School in the city. And, from there, the short distance to sanctity: they called her "Saint Rosa", "an angel walking", "a heaven-sent messenger". Mothers expressed concern about permitting their children on the buses. After training, she landed a job as a nurses aide in a Catholic hospital in Manhattan. [24], Colvin's moment of activism was not solitary or random. She now works as a nurses' aide at an old people's home in downtown Manhattan. Rosa didnt give me enough time to put in for a day off, she recalled. "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.". Letters of support came from as far afield as Oregon and California. Colvin gave birth to Raymond, a son. "She had remained calm all during the days of her waiting period and during the trial," wrote Robinson. 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. 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. [51], National Museum of African American History and Culture, "Power Dynamics of a Segregated City: Class, Gender, and Claudette Colvin's Struggle for Equality", "Before Rosa Parks, Claudette Colvin Stayed in Her Bus Seat", "From Footnote to Fame in Civil Rights History", "Before Rosa Parks, A Teenager Defied Segregation On An Alabama Bus", "Chapter 1 (excerpt): 'Up From Pine Level', "#ThrowbackThursday: The girl who acted before Rosa Parks", "Claudette Colvin: an unsung hero in the Montgomery Bus Boycott", "The Origins of the Montgomery Bus Boycott", "A Forgotten Contribution: Before Rosa Parks, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on the bus", "Claudette Colvin: First to keep her seat", "Claudette Colvin | Americans Who Tell The Truth", "Claudette Colvin: the woman who refused to give up her bus seat nine months before Rosa Parks", "2 other bus boycott heroes praise Parks' acclaim", "This once-forgotten civil rights hero deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom", "Chairman Crowley Honors Civil Rights Pioneer Claudette Colvin", "The Other Rosa Parks: Now 73, Claudette Colvin Was First to Refuse Giving Up Seat on Montgomery Bus", "Claudette Colvin Seeks Greater Recognition For Role In Making Civil Rights History", "Weekend: Civil rights heroine Claudette Colvin", "Claudette Colvin honored by Montgomery council", "Alabama unveils statue of civil rights icon Rosa Parks", "Rosa Parks statue unveiled in Alabama on anniversary of her refusal to give up seat", "She refused to move bus seats months before Rosa Parks. "In a few hours, every Negro youngster on the streets discussed Colvin's arrest. 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. But while the driver went to get a policeman, it was the white students who started to make noise. Charged with disturbing the peace, breaking the bus segregation laws and assaulting the officers who had apprehended her, she was released later that night. So he said, 'If you are not going to get up, I will get a policeman.'" He contacted Montgomery Councilmen Charles Jinright and Tracy Larkin, and in 2017, the Council passed a resolution for a proclamation honoring Colvin. Parks made hers on Dec. 1 that same year. However, her story is often silenced. 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. Parks became one of Time Magazine's 100 most important people of the 20th century . "So I told him I was not going to get up, either. When the white seats were filled, the driver, J Fred Black, asked Parks and three others to give up their seats. [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. After her arrest and late appearance in the court hearing, she was more or less forgotten. 05 September 1939 - Court trial. For all her bravado, Colvin was shocked by the extremity of what happened next. "If it had been for an old lady, I would have got up, but it wasn't. But people in King Hill do not remember Colvin as that type of girl, and the accusation irritates Colvin to this day. Claudette Colvin was born on September 5, 1939, in Montgomery, Alabama. "I wasn't frightened but disappointed and angry because I knew I was sitting in the right seat.". 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. "[21] Colvin recalled, "History kept me stuck to my seat. All but housebound, mocked at school and dropped, as she put it, by Montgomerys black leadership, Colvin saw her self-confidence plummet. Martin Luther King Jr., had been seeking to stir the outrage of African Americans and sympathetic whites into civic action. 2023 BBC. Colvin went to her job instead. Colvin was born on September 5, 1939, in Montgomery, Alabama. Colvin says that after Supreme Court made its decision, things slowly began to change. 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. "I was more defiant and then they knocked my books out of my lap and one of them grabbed my arm. She refused to give up her seat on a bus months before Rosa Parks' more famous protest. She said, "They've already called it the Rosa Parks museum, so they've already made up their minds what the story is. ", 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. 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. "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. I was glued to my seat," she later told Newsweek. 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. It was a journey not only into history but also mythology. 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. In 1969, years after moving to NYC, she acquired a job working as a Nurse's aide at a Nursing home. 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. [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. "We didn't know what was going to happen, but we knew something would happen. Councilman Larkin's sister was on the bus in 1955 when Colvin was arrested. Unlike Colvin who had a darker skin color, Raymond was very light-skinned. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. Colvin. She worked there for 35 years, retiring in 2004. The driver wanted all of them to move to the back and stand so that the white passenger could sit. "I waited for about three hours until my mother arrived with my pastor to bail me out. 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. She refused to name the father or have anything to do with him. This made her very scared that they would sexually assault her because this happened frequently. 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. Raymond Colvin died in 1993 in New York of a heart attack at age 37. The three other girls got up; Colvin stayed put. "I went bipolar. Claudette Colvin, 81, was a true pioneer in the Civil Rights Movement. Colvin is not exactly bitter. She resisted bus segregation nine months before Rosa Parks, . A second son, Randy, born in 1960, gave her four grandchildren, who are all deeply proud of their grandmother's heroism. "I felt like Sojourner Truth was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman was pushing down on the othersaying, 'Sit down girl!' Claudette Colvin (born Claudette Austin; September 5, 1939) [1] [2] is an American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide. [20] In a later interview, she said: "We couldn't try on clothes. "The white people were always seated at the front of the bus and the black people were seated at the back of the bus. 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. '", The atmosphere on the bus became very tense. The court declared her a ward of the state and remanded her to the custody of her family. "If any of you are not gentlemen enough to give a lady a seat, you should be put in jail yourself," he said. "I became very active in her youth group and we use to meet every Sunday afternoon at the Luther church," she says. "When I was in the ninth grade, all the police cars came to get Jeremiah," says Colvin. So he said, 'If you are not going to get up, I will get a policeman. He wasn't." "Aren't you going to get up?" [23] She was bailed out by her minister, who told her that she had brought the revolution to Montgomery. 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." "He asked us both to get up. 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. [44], Former US Poet Laureate Rita Dove memorialized Colvin in her poem "Claudette Colvin Goes To Work",[45] published in her 1999 book On the Bus with Rosa Parks; folk singer John McCutcheon turned this poem into a song, which was first publicly performed in Charlottesville, Virginia's Paramount Theater in 2006. [29], Colvin gave birth to a son, Raymond, in March 1956. First Name Claudette #1. On June 5, 1956, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama issued a ruling declaring the state of Alabama and Montgomery's laws mandating public bus segregation as unconstitutional. 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. ", Rosa Parks is a heroine to the US civil rights movement. 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