Editing Claudette Colvin (section)

{{Short description|African-American civil rights activist (born 1939)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Use American English|date=December 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Claudette Colvin
| image              = Claudette Colvin.jpg
| caption            = Colvin in 1952, aged 13
| birth_name         = Claudette Austin
| birth_date         = {{Birth date and age|1939|9|5}}
| birth_place        = [[Montgomery, Alabama]], U.S.
| known_for          = Arrested at the age of 15 in [[Montgomery, Alabama]], for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus, nine months before the similar [[Rosa Parks]] incident.
| occupation         = [[Civil rights activist]], [[nurse aide]]
| years_active       = 1969–2004 (as nurse aide)
| era                = [[Civil rights movement]] (1954–1968)
| children           = 2
}}

'''Claudette Colvin''' (born '''Claudette Austin'''; September 5, 1939)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.biography.com/people/claudette-colvin-11378|title=Claudette Colvin|website=Biography.com|language=en-us|access-date=January 29, 2018}}</ref><ref name="power dynamics">{{cite thesis | last= Gordon| first= Samantha| title= Power Dynamics of a Segregated City: Class, Gender, and Claudette Colvin's Struggle for Equality | type=MA thesis | publisher= [[Sarah Lawrence College]]| year= 2015| url= http://digitalcommons.slc.edu/womenshistory_etd/10/|access-date=February 23, 2021}}</ref> is an American pioneer of the [[civil rights movement|1950s civil rights movement]] and retired [[nurse aide]]. 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. It occurred nine months before the similar, 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]].<ref name="aauw_2012-03-21">{{cite web |url=https://www.aauw.org/2012/03/21/claudette-colvin-stayed/ |title=Before Rosa Parks, Claudette Colvin Stayed in Her Bus Seat |website= aauw.org |publisher= American Association of University Women |date=March 21, 2012 |access-date=May 26, 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191122063308/https://www.aauw.org/2012/03/21/claudette-colvin-stayed/ |archive-date=November 22, 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Colvin was one of four plaintiffs in the first federal court case filed by civil rights attorney [[Fred Gray (attorney)|Fred Gray]] on February 1, 1956, as ''[[Browder v. Gayle]]'', to challenge bus segregation in the city. In a United States district court, Colvin testified before the three-judge panel that heard the case. On June 13, 1956, the judges determined that the state and local laws requiring bus segregation in Alabama were unconstitutional. The case went to the [[United States Supreme Court]] on appeal by the state, which upheld the district court's ruling on November 13, 1956. One month later, the Supreme Court affirmed the order to Montgomery and the state of Alabama to end bus segregation. The [[Montgomery bus boycott]] was then called off after a few months. The court subsequently declared all segregation on public transportation unconstitutional.

For many years, Montgomery's black leaders did not publicize Colvin's pioneering effort. She has said, "Young people think Rosa Parks just sat down on a bus and ended segregation, but that wasn't the case at all."<ref name="Barnes"/> Colvin's case was dropped by civil rights campaigners because she was unmarried and pregnant during the proceedings.<ref name= "Guardian1" /><ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/27/389563788/before-rosa-parks-a-teenager-defied-segregation-on-an-alabama-bus |title=Before Rosa Parks, A Teenager Defied Segregation On An Alabama Bus |publisher=NPR |date=March 2, 2015 |access-date=March 2, 2018 |first=Sarah Kate |last=Kramer }}</ref> It is now widely accepted that she was not accredited by civil rights campaigners due to her circumstances. Rosa Parks said, "If the white press got ahold of that information, they would have [had] a field day. They'd call her a bad girl, and her case wouldn't have a chance."<ref name="Guardian1" /><ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-05-18|title=Claudette Colvin|url=https://rosaparksbiography.org/bio/claudette-colvin/|access-date=2021-03-02|website=The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks|language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2021, the record of Colvin's arrest and adjudication of delinquency was [[expungement|expunged]] by the district court in the county where the charges against her had been brought more than 66 years earlier.