And that person, it transpired, would be Rosa Parks. 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. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her . Second, she was the first person, in Montgomery at least, to take up the challenge. 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. Rita Dove penned the poem "Claudette Colvin Goes to Work," which later became a song. A 15-year-old high school student at the time, Colvin got fed up and refused to move even before Parks. 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. 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. 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. 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. But there were two things about Colvin's stand on that March day that made it significant. Colvin was initially charged with disturbing the peace, violating the segregation laws, and battering and assaulting a police officer. 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. For we like our history neat - an easy-to-follow, self-contained narrative with dates, characters and landmarks with which we can weave together otherwise unrelated events into one apparently seamless length of fabric held together by sequence and consequence. Two years later, Colvin moved to New York City, where she had her second son, Randy, and worked as a nurse's aide at a Manhattan nursing home. He was born on March 3, 1931, in Mound City, S.D., the son of Alfred Gunderson and Verna Johnson Gunderson. Claudette Colvin (born September 5, 1939) is a retired American nurse aide who was a pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement. In 2009, the writer Phillip Hoose published a book that told her story in detail for the first time. But they dont say that Columbus discovered America; they should say, for the European people, that is, you know, their discovery of the new world. Claudette Colvin's birthstone is Sapphire. "However, the black leadership in Montgomery at the time thought that we should wait. A group of black civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr., was organized to discuss Colvin's arrest with the police commissioner. Her voice is soft and high, almost shrill. Civil Rights Leader #7. ", "I wanted to go north and liberate my people," explains Colvin. I felt inspired by these women because my teacher taught us about them in so much detail," she says. It was a case of 'bourgey' blacks looking down on the working-class blacks. Claudette Colvin was born on September 5, 1939, in Montgomery, Alabama. Sapphire was once thought to guard against evil and poisoning. 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. [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". The boycott was very effective but the city still resisted complying with protesters' demands - an end to the policy preventing the hiring of black bus drivers and the introduction of first-come first-seated rule. 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. Now 76 and retired, Colvin deserves her place in history. Until recently, none of her workmates knew anything of her pioneering role in the civil rights movement. Claudette Colvin was an American civil rights activist during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. [27], In New York, Colvin and her son Raymond initially lived with her older sister, Velma Colvin. This made her very scared that they would sexually assault her because this happened frequently. She turns, watches, wipes, feeds and washes the elderly patients and offers them a gentle, consoling word when they become disoriented. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7a1897c67fea0e3a Her first son died in 1993. "She gave me the feeling that I was the Moses that God had sent to Pharaoh," said Fred Gray, the lawyer who went on to represent her. The driver looked at the women in his mirror. 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. The woman alleged rape; Reeves insisted it was consensual. He went back to Colvin, now seven months pregnant. In this lesson, students will learn about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old who stood up for equal rights in 1955. "She had remained calm all during the days of her waiting period and during the trial," wrote Robinson. 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. "I was really afraid, because you just didn't know what white people might do at that time," says Colvin. . Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. Officers were called to the scene and Colvin was forcefully taken off of the bus and . Listen to Claudette Colvin's interview on Outlook on the BBC World Service. Daryl Bailey, the District Attorney for the county, supported her motion, stating: "Her actions back in March of 1955 were conscientious, not criminal; inspired, not illegal; they should have led to praise and not prosecution". "New York is a completely different culture to Montgomery, Alabama. This movement took place in the United States. 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. "Move y'all, I want those two seats," he yelled. "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 Monday, the day the boycott began, Colvin had already been airbrushed from the official version of events. The baby was fair-skinned just like his dad and people accused her of having a white baby. The law at the time designated seats for black passengers at the back and for whites at the front, but left the middle as a murky no man's land. 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. She retired in 2004. Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. [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. Performance & security by Cloudflare. She decided on that day that she wasn't going to move. So we choose the facts to fit the narrative we want to hear. He was so light-skinned (like his father) that people frequently said she had a baby by a white man. "I had almost a life history of being rebellious against being mistreated against my colour," she said. Phillip Hoose. [47], A re-enactment of Colvin's resistance is portrayed in a 2014 episode of the comedy TV series Drunk History about Montgomery, Alabama. I started protecting my crotch. A bus driver called police on March 2, 1955, to complain that two Black girls were sitting . [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. They never came and discussed it with my parents. "Claudette gave all of us moral courage. Although some of the details might seem familiar, this is not the Rosa Parks story. "So I told him I was not going to get up, either. 1939- Claudette was born in Birmingham 1951- 22nd Amendment was put into place, limiting the presidential term of office . "In a few hours, every Negro youngster on the streets discussed Colvin's arrest. To sustain the boycott, communities organised carpools and the Montgomery's African-American taxi drivers charged only 10 cents - the same price as bus fare - for fellow African Americans. [2] She was also a member of the NAACP Youth Council, where she formed a close relationship with her mentor, Rosa Parks. Men instructed their wives to walk or to share rides in neighbour's autos.". [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. She sat down in the front of the bus and refused to move on her own will when asked. Claudette Colvin was the first person arrested by the police in Montgomery, AL for refusing to give up her bus seat. Colvin has retired from her job and has been living her life. Then, they will reflect on a time when they took a stand on an important issue. Unable to find work in Montgomery, Colvin moved to New York in 1958, while her son Raymond remained behind with family. She also had become pregnant and they thought an unwed mother would attract too much negative attention in a public legal battle. 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. [4][18] Colvin said, "But I made a personal statement, too, one that [Parks] didn't make and probably couldn't have made. [49], The Little-Known Heroes: Claudette Colvin, a children's picture book by Kaushay and Spencer Ford, was published in 2021. On 2 March 1955, Colvin and her friends finished their classes and were let out of school early. The bus driver had the authority to assign the seats, so when more white passengers got on the bus, he asked for the seats.". In March 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks defied segregation laws by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin did exactly the same thing. As civil rights attorney Fred Gray put it, Claudette gave all of us moral courage. Why has Claudette Colvin been denied her place in history? [16], Through the trial Colvin was represented by Fred Gray, a lawyer for the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which was organizing civil rights actions. "They did think I was nutty and crazy.". The Supreme Court summarily affirmed the District Court decision on November 13, 1956. After training, she landed a job as a nurses aide in a Catholic hospital in Manhattan. Born on September 5 #12. Mine was the first cry for justice, and a loud one. She relied on the city's buses to get to and from school because her family did not own a car. 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. 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. She resisted bus segregation nine months before Rosa Parks, . But she rarely told her story after moving to New York City. I was afraid they might rape me. Nor was Colvin the last to be passed over. 05 September 1939 - Court trial. 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. ", A personal tragedy for her was seen as a political liability by the town's civil rights leaders. To the exclusively male and predominantly middle-class, church-dominated, local black leadership in Montgomery, she was a fallen woman. Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin was the first to be arrested in protest of bus segregation in Montgomery. Reeves was a teenage grocery delivery boy who was found having sex with a white woman. She fell out of history altogether. .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}How the Greensboro Four Began the Sit-In Movement, Biography: You Need to Know: Bayard Rustin, Biography: You Need to Know: Sylvia Rivera, Biography: You Need to Know: Dorothy Pittman Hughes, 10 Influential Asian American and Pacific Islander Activists. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. "They'd call her a bad girl, and her case wouldn't have a chance. She and her son Raymond moved in with Velma while Colvin looked for work. "I felt like Sojourner Truth was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman was pushing down on the othersaying, 'Sit down girl!' 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. James Edward "Jungle Jim" Colvin, 69, of Juliette, Georgia, passed away on Saturday, February 25, 2023. Funeral Services will be held Saturday, April 20, 2013 at 11:00 a.m. at the Ft. Deposit Municipal Complex with Pastor. 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. [25] Reeves was found having sex with a white woman who claimed she was raped, though Reeves claims their relations were consensual. "Y'all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats," he said. It was this dark, clever, angry young woman who boarded the Highland Avenue bus on Friday, March 2, 1955, opposite Martin Luther King's church on Dexter Avenue, Montgomery. 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