Written by: Tori Lopez
Rosa Parks. You see her name plastered everywhere: schools, streets, even highways. Parks’s refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus helped to spark the flame behind the Civil Rights Movement. But before Parks, there was another black girl who refused to give up her seat. Claudette Colvin, a teenager who also hailed from Montgomery, said no to the bus driver nine months before Parks.
Born in 1939, Colvin was raised in a poor neighborhood in Montgomery, Alabama. Despite this, her teachers made an effort to educate their students about black history. She credits learning about these influential figures to standing up for herself during her bus ride.
That said, after being let out of school early on March 2, 1955, Colvin and her friends went on the nearest bus. They situated themselves in the middle row. The front of the bus was for white passengers only, and as the bus filled with more white commuters, Colvin and her friends were ordered to give up their seats.
While her friends shuffled to the back, Colvin remained in place. She remembered the strong black figures she had learned in class during that moment. Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth — it was like they were holding her shoulders down. Colvin wasn’t scared, she was inspired.
“I paid my fare and it’s my constitutional right,” she said.
The bus driver stopped as soon as the driver saw a police squad car. Colvin was arrested on the spot.
At just 15-years-old, Claudette Colvin stood up to the injustice around her.
Colvin’s parents and her pastor arrived three hours later to bail her out. Although her mother was proud of her daughter for standing up to the system, her father asserted that they were all in danger. Her father stayed up throughout the night with a loaded shotgun, worried that the Ku Klux Klan might arrive.
The community was more mixed. Although some would help protect Colvin’s home and applaud her for her courage, others argued that she made the situation worse.
It’s true that other African-Americans displayed the same boldness as Colvin. Rosa Parks did it. But Colvin wanted to continue to fight the system, so she hired a lawyer.
It took about a year for the case to start (considering Colvin had gotten pregnant and acknowledged that it would interfere with her case and image). But when it did, it became known as Browder v. Gayle, a landmark federal lawsuit that terminated segregation on public transportation in Alabama.
Colvin isn’t upset at Rosa Parks for getting all the spotlight during the Civil Rights Movement, or at least not anymore. In fact, both were members of the NAACP. Colvin knew Parks personally, citing Parks to be a quiet yet generous woman. Shortly after Colvin was arrested, she would sometimes stay overnight at Parks’s apartment.
Claudette Colvin is still alive and well today.
And that’s something to keep in mind: during Black History Month, we should not only avoid pitting women against each other, but continue to support the brave African Americans that built this country. Claudette Colvin may not be as well-known as Rosa Parks, but her contributions to ending segregation were and are monumental.
Likewise, we should take the time to remember that Colvin’s actions happened in 1955. Colvin is still alive today at a mere 80 years old. This isn’t ancient history; figureheads like Colvin are still living today. We should take the time to listen to them, learn from them, and make sure their efforts weren’t in vain.
So of course, before Rosa Parks, there was Claudette Colvin. And after that, there will be more influential African Americans, paving the way for the next generation of black youth.