March 2 was named Claudette Colvin day in Montgomery. The once-quiet student was branded a troublemaker by some, and she had to drop out of college. Historically, however, the case of Rosa Parks has received much more attention and support. 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. They asked Colvin to touch hands with them, in order to compare the colors of their skin. Amelia Boynton Robinson was a civil rights pioneer who championed voting rights for African Americans. She had a rebellious nature from a young age. Colvin gave birth to a son, Raymond in March 1956. version : 'v6.0' Colvin studied at Booker T. Washington High School, a segregated school for African Americans. She knew that in 1955 she would be arrested for protesting segregation laws but she did anyway and helped pave the way for the overturning of segregation laws in Alabama. She withdrew from college, and struggled in the local environment. Her biological parents are C.P. js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; The area had a reputation for being a drug addicts haven. The verdict of this case was a historic step for African Americans, as it officially led to the end of segregation and the signing of the 14th amendment. In the 2010s, Larkin arranged for a street to be named after Colvin. 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. My mom named me after Claudette Colbert, a movie star back then, supposedly because we both had high cheekbones. Her defiance sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Colvin served as a witness for the case, Browder v. Gayle, which eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court. 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. if( !window.fbl_started) Councilman Larkin's sister was on the bus in 1955 when Colvin was arrested. Born on September 5 #32. Colvin was disappointed that she did not get more recognition for her actions. "[35], I dont think theres room for many more icons. She also had become pregnant and they thought an unwed mother would attract too much negative attention in a public legal battle. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested at the age of 15 in Montgomery, . Colvins arrest record and adjudication of delinquency were finally expunged. The court sentenced her to indefinite probation and declared her to be a ward of the state. Taylor Branch. This then also influenced the Montgomery bus boycott, which was called off after the Supreme Courts ruling to end bus segregation in Alabama. She is a wondrous person for what she did. Colvin and Mary Anne Colvin. Colvin was asked by the driver to give up her seat on the crowded bus for a white passenger who had just boarded; she refused. Claudette Colvin (born Claudette Austin; September 5, 1939)[1][2] is an American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide. Claudette Colbert was born in Paris and brought to the United States as a child three years later. [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. [4] Colvin later said: "My mother told me to be quiet about what I did. Claudette Colvin is a black rights activist who was born on September 5 1939 in Montgomery, Alabama. Claudette Colvin. . Copyright 2016 FamousAfricanAmericans.org, Museum Dedicated to African American History and Culture is Set to Open in 2016, Scholarships for African Americans Black Scholarships, Top 10 Most Famous Black Actors of All Time. She'd been politicized by the mistreatment of her classmate Jeremiah Reeves and had just written a paper on the problems of downtown segregation. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR). Colvin was born September 5, 1939, and was adopted by C. P. Colvin and Mary Anne Colvin. Seeing this, her mother slapped her in the face and told her that she was not allowed to touch white boys. [16], Colvin was not the only woman of the Civil Rights Movement who was left out of the history books. [51], African-American civil rights activist (born 1939), 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. "Claudette Colvin's story is a timeless profile in courage," says Montgomery's mayor, Steven Reed, who was elected in 2019, becoming the city's first Black mayor. Colvin was a member of the NAACP Youth Council and had been learning about the civil rights movement in school. Claudette Colvin and her guardians relocated to Montgomery when she was eight. [4][18] Colvin said, "But I made a personal statement, too, one that [Parks] didn't make and probably couldn't have made. appId : '179692745920433', Officers were called to the scene and Colvin was forcefully taken off of the bus and . However, her story is often silenced. In fact, she attended segregated schoolsand rode segregated busesin Montgomery, Alabama. She sat down in the front of the bus and refused to move on her own will when asked. Claudette Colvin was born September 5, 1939, in Montgomery, Alabama. She had been sitting far behind the seats already reserved for whites, and although a city ordinance empowered bus drivers to enforce segregation, blacks could not be asked to give up a seat in the Negro section of the bus for a white person when it was crowded. 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. Colvin moved to New York in 1958, where she found a job as a nurses aide in a nursing home in Manhattan. Colvin. Claudette was born on September 5th 1939 in Montgomery, Alabama. Raymond Colvin died in 1993 in New York of a heart attack at age 37. [15], In 1955, Colvin was a student at the segregated Booker T. Washington High School in the city. She was played by Mariah Iman Wilson. Claudette Colvin is best known as Civil Rights Leader who has born on September 05, 1939 in Alabama. The district courts decision was appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the original ruling. After her minister paid her bail, she went home where she and her family stayed up all night out of concern for possible retaliation. Colvin, however, continued to refuse so she was taken into custody. 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. [2][14] Despite being a good student, Colvin had difficulty connecting with her peers in school due to grief. . In court, Colvin opposed the segregation law by declaring herself not guilty. She also served as a plaintiff in the landmark legal case Browder v. Gayle, which helped end the practice of segregation on Montgomery public buses. 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. xfbml : true, No further step, Street Team INNW, St. Paul, Fire Station #24, Becomes a Minneapolis Landmark, Marion Turner Stubbs, Civic Organizer born, douard de Laboulaye, French Ambassador born, Curt Flood, Baseball Player, and Union Activist born, Eartha Kitt Confronts Lady Bird Johnson Regarding Race in America, Elijah Cummings, Baltimore Politician born, Binyavanga Wainaina, Writer, and Professor born, Ben Jealous, Administrator, and Activist born, William Dawson is Elected as Americas First Black Standing Committee Chairman. Share with your friends. Born to Mary Jane Gadson and C. P. Austin, Colvin and her family moved to Montgomery, AL, when she was eight years old. Coincidentally, by March 2, 1955, Claudette was learning about the civil rights movement in school. FBL.renderFinish(); She was adopted by C.P. Colvin's neighborhood growing up was a very impoverished one. She said she felt as if she was "getting [her] Christmas in January rather than the 25th. [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. [36], Colvin and her family have been fighting for recognition for her action. Austin, but she was raised by her great-aunt and great-uncle, Mary Ann and Q.P. Claudette Colvin (born Claudette Austin, September 5, 1939) Montgomery, Alabama, is an American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide.