Editing Claudette Colvin

{{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.

== Early life ==
Claudette Colvin was born Claudette Austin in [[Montgomery, Alabama]], on September 5, 1939, to Mary Jane Gadson and C. P. Austin. When Austin abandoned the family, Gadson was unable to financially support her children. Colvin and her younger sister, Delphine, were taken in by their great aunt and uncle, Mary Anne and Q. P. Colvin, whose daughter, Velma, had already moved out.<ref name="power dynamics"/> Colvin and her sister referred to the Colvins as their parents and took their last name.<ref>{{cite book |last= Hoose| first= Phillip |title= Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice| date= 2009| publisher= Melanie Kroupa Books |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=vna6LzBbkuAC|isbn=978-1429948210|page=11}}</ref> When they took Claudette in, the Colvins lived in [[Pine Level, Montgomery County, Alabama|Pine Level]], a small country town in [[Montgomery County, Alabama|Montgomery County]], the same town where Rosa Parks grew up.<ref name="power dynamics"/><ref>{{cite news |first=Douglas |last=Brinkley |work=Rosa Parks |title=Chapter 1 (excerpt): 'Up From Pine Level' |publisher=Lipper/Viking; excerpt published in The New York Times |url-access=registration|year=2000 |isbn=0-670-89160-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/rosaparks00brin | access-date= July 1, 2008}}</ref> When Colvin was eight years old, the Colvins moved to King Hill, a poor black neighborhood in [[Montgomery, Alabama|Montgomery]] where she spent the rest of her childhood.<ref>{{cite web| last= Blattman| first= Elissa | url= https://www.nwhm.org/blog/throwbackthursday-the-girl-who-acted-before-rosa-parks/ |title= #ThrowbackThursday: The girl who acted before Rosa Parks| website= NWHM.org| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160729094037/http://www.nwhm.org/blog/throwbackthursday-the-girl-who-acted-before-rosa-parks/ |archive-date=July 29, 2016 | publisher= [[National Women's History Museum]] | access-date= February 9, 2016}}</ref>{{sfn|Hoose|2009|p=15}}

Two days before Colvin's 13th birthday, Delphine died of polio.<ref name="power dynamics"/>{{sfn|Hoose|2009|p=18–19}} Not long after, in September 1952, Colvin started attending [[Booker T. Washington School (Montgomery, Alabama)|Booker T. Washington High School]].<ref name="power dynamics"/><ref name=jet>{{Cite news| url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_9_107/ai_n11834082/ |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20050523054221/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_9_107/ai_n11834082 |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 23, 2005 |title= Claudette Colvin: an unsung hero in the Montgomery Bus Boycott |date=February 28, 2005 |work=[[Jet (magazine)|Jet]] |publisher=[[FindArticles]] |access-date=November 27, 2009 }}</ref> Despite being a good student, Colvin had difficulty connecting with her peers in school due to grief.<ref name="power dynamics"/> She was also a member of the [[NAACP Youth Council]], where she formed a close relationship with her mentor, [[Rosa Parks]].<ref>{{cite journal| last= Garrow| first= David J. |title= The Origins of the Montgomery Bus Boycott| journal= [[Southern Changes]]| volume= 7| date= October 1985| pages= 21–27| url= http://www.davidgarrow.com/File/DJG%201985%20SChangesJAGRMontgBBText.pdf}}</ref>

== Bus incident ==
In 1955, Colvin was a student at the segregated Booker T. Washington High School in the city. She relied on the city's buses to get to and from school because her family did not own a car. The majority of customers on the bus system were African American, but they were discriminated against by its custom of segregated seating. Colvin was a member of the [[NAACP]] Youth Council and had been learning about the civil rights movement in school.<ref name="Adler"/> On March 2, 1955, she was returning home from school when she boarded a Highland Gardens bus and sat down near an emergency exit in a middle row.{{sfn|Hoose|2009|p=29}}

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. When a white woman who got on the bus was left standing in the front, the bus driver, Robert W. Cleere, commanded Colvin and three other black women in her row to move to the back. The other three moved, but another black woman, Ruth Hamilton, who was pregnant, got on the bus and sat next to Colvin.

The driver looked at the woman in his mirror. "He asked us both to get up. [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. "So I told him I was not going to get up either. So he said, 'If you are not going to get up, I will get a policeman.{{'"}} The police arrived and convinced a black man sitting behind the two women to move so that Mrs. Hamilton could move back, but Colvin still refused to move. She was forcibly removed from the bus and arrested by the two policemen, Thomas J. Ward and Paul Headley.<ref>{{cite book|last2=Greenhaw|first2=Wayne | first1= Donnie | last1= Williams |title= Thunder of Angels: The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the People Who Broke the Back of Jim Crow| year= 2007| page= 49| publisher= Chicago Review Press |location= Chicago |isbn= 9781556526763 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=jkVAYPFSpLAC&q=colvin| via= Google Books}}</ref><ref name= "newsweek1">{{cite news |first= Eliza |last= Gray |title= A Forgotten Contribution: Before Rosa Parks, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on the bus |url= http://www.newsweek.com/id/187325/?gt1=43002 |work= [[Newsweek]] |date= March 2, 2009 |access-date= November 26, 2009 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090401075059/http://www.newsweek.com/id/187325/?gt1=43002 |archive-date= April 1, 2009 }}</ref><ref name= "Guardian1">{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2000/dec/16/weekend7.weekend12| first= Gary |last= Younge |title= She would not be moved|newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date= December 16, 2000 |location= London}}</ref> This event took place nine months before the NAACP secretary [[Rosa Parks]] was arrested for the same offense.<ref name= "Barnes">{{cite news | first= Brooks |last= Barnes |title=From Footnote to Fame in Civil Rights History |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/books/26colvin.html?_r=1&hp |work=The New York Times |date=November 25, 2009 |access-date=October 27, 2017 |language= en-US |issn= 0362-4331}}</ref> Colvin later said: "My mother told me to be quiet about what I did. She told me: 'Let Rosa be the one. White people aren't going to bother Rosa[,] her skin is lighter than yours and they like her.{{'"}}<ref name="Barnes"/> Colvin did not receive the same attention as Parks for a number of reasons: she did not have "good hair", she was not fair-skinned, she was a teenager, and she was pregnant. The leaders in the Civil Rights Movement tried to keep up appearances and make the "most appealing" protesters the most seen.<ref name="Adler" /><ref>{{cite book| chapter= Intersectionalities and Multiplicities: Race and Materiality in Literature for the Young| title= Twenty-First-Century Feminisms in Children's and Adolescent Literature| first= Roberta| last= Seelinger Trites| publisher= University Press of Mississippi| place= Jackson, Mississippi| year= 2018| pages= 31–58| jstor= j.ctv5jxnst.6| doi= 10.2307/j.ctv5jxnst| isbn= 978-1-4968-1384-8}}</ref>

When Colvin refused to get up, she was thinking about a school paper she had written that day, about the local customs that prohibited Blacks from using the dressing rooms in order to try on clothes in department stores.<ref name="colvin">{{Cite book |title= Rosa Parks| first= Douglas |last= Brinkley |publisher= Viking |year= 2000 |isbn= 978-0-670-89160-3 |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/rosaparks00brin}}</ref> In a later interview, she said: "We couldn't try on clothes. You had to take a brown paper bag and draw a diagram of your foot ... and take it to the store".<ref name="Adler" /> Referring to the segregation on the bus and the white woman, Colvin recalled: "If she sat down in the same row as me, it meant I was as good as her."<ref name= "Barnes" />

"The bus was getting crowded, and I remember the bus driver looking through the rearview mirror asking her [Colvin] to get up for the white woman, which she didn't," said Annie Larkins Price, a classmate of Colvin. "She had been yelling, 'It's my [[constitutional right]]!'. She decided on that day that she wasn't going to move."<ref name="Huntsville">{{cite news| first= Amanda |last= Dawkins |title= 'Unsung hero' of boycott paved way for Parks |work= [[The Huntsville Times]]|<!--WIRE STATE;-->page=6B|date=February 7, 2005}}</ref> Colvin recalled, "History kept me stuck to my seat. I felt the hand of [[Harriet Tubman]] pushing down on one shoulder and [[Sojourner Truth]] pushing down on the other."<ref name= Colvin>{{Cite news| first= Phillip| last= Hoose |title= Claudette Colvin: First to keep her seat |work= [[Philadelphia Tribune]]| url= https://www.npr.org/2009/03/15/101719889/before-rosa-parks-there-was-claudette-colvin}}</ref> Colvin was handcuffed, arrested, and forcibly removed from the bus. She shouted that her constitutional rights were being violated.<ref name="Barnes" /><ref name= "newsweek1"/> Colvin said, "But I made a personal statement, too, one that [Parks] didn't make and probably couldn't have made. Mine was the first cry for justice, and a loud one."{{sfn|Hoose|2009|p=104}}

The police officers who took her to the station made sexual comments about her body and took turns guessing her bra size throughout the ride.<ref name= "power dynamics" /> After one officer jumped in the back seat of the police car, Colvin recalled, "I put my knees together and crossed my hands over my lap and started praying."{{sfn|Hoose|2009|p=32}} This made her very scared that they would sexually assault her because this happened frequently. Price testified for Colvin, who was tried in juvenile court. Colvin was initially charged with [[Breach of the peace|disturbing the peace]], violating the [[segregation laws]], and [[battery (crime)|battering]] and [[assaulting]] a police officer. "There was no assault", Price said.<ref name= "Huntsville"/>

A group of black civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King Jr. was organized to discuss Colvin's arrest with the police commissioner.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Claudette Colvin {{!}} Americans Who Tell The Truth|url=https://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/portraits/claudette-colvin|access-date=2021-03-02|website=americanswhotellthetruth.org}}</ref> She was bailed out by her minister, who told her that she had brought the revolution to Montgomery.<ref name="Adler" />

Through the trial Colvin was represented by [[Fred Gray (attorney)|Fred Gray]], a lawyer for the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which was organizing civil rights actions.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://www.blackpast.org/aah/colvin-claudette-1935|title=Colvin, Claudette| work= The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed|date=March 14, 2014| via= blackpast.org|language=en|access-date=April 13, 2018}}</ref> She was convicted on all three charges in [[juvenile court]]. 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.<ref name=":0" />

Colvin's moment of activism was not solitary or random. In high school, she had high ambitions of political activity. She dreamed of becoming the [[President of the United States]]. 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.<ref>{{cite news| last= Laughland| first= Oliver| title= Claudette Colvin: the woman who refused to give up her bus seat – nine months before Rosa Parks | url= https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/25/claudette-colvin-the-woman-who-refused-to-give-up-her-bus-seat-nine-months-before-rosa-parks | date= February 25, 2021| newspaper= The Guardian| access-date= February 25, 2021 }}</ref> Reeves was found having sexual intercourse with a white woman who claimed she was raped, though Reeves claims their relations were consensual. He was executed for his alleged crimes.<ref>{{Cite journal| last= Cotton |first= Nzinga| date=June 30, 2008| title= Claudette Colvin | journal= [[New Nation]]| pages= 21 |id= {{ProQuest|390122752}}}}</ref>

==''Browder v. Gayle''==
{{main|Browder v. Gayle}}Claudette Colvin was one of four plaintiffs in the first federal court case filed by civil rights attorney Fred Gray on February 1, 1956, [[Browder v. Gayle]], which challenged bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama. Colvin testified before a three-judge panel in the United States District Court that heard the case. On June 13, 1956, the court ruled that state and local laws enforcing bus segregation in Alabama were unconstitutional. The state appealed the decision to the United States Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court’s ruling on November 13, 1956. One month later, the Supreme Court affirmed the order for Montgomery and the state of Alabama to end bus segregation. As a result, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which had lasted over a year, was officially called off. The ruling ultimately led to the declaration that all segregation on public transportation was unconstitutional.

== Life after activism ==
Colvin gave birth to a son, Raymond, in March 1956. Colvin left Montgomery for [[New York City]] in 1958,<ref name="Guardian1"/> because she had difficulty finding and keeping work following her participation in the federal court case that overturned bus segregation. Similarly, Rosa Parks left Montgomery for [[Detroit]] in 1957.<ref name="Chicago1"/> Colvin stated she was branded a troublemaker by many in her community. She withdrew from college, and struggled in the local environment.<ref name="biography.com">[http://www.biography.com/people/claudette-colvin-11378 "Claudette Colvin Biography"]. [[FYI (U.S. TV channel)|Bio]]. Retrieved February 8, 2016.</ref>

In New York, Colvin and her son Raymond initially lived with her older sister, Velma Colvin. In 1960, she gave birth to her second son, Randy.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Hoose |first=Phillip |date=2016-04-01 |title=This once-forgotten civil rights hero deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom |language=en-US |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-once-forgotten-civil-rights-hero-deserves-the-presidential-medal-of-freedom/2016/04/01/9d122726-e7bb-11e5-b0fd-073d5930a7b7_story.html |access-date=2022-10-30 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> Claudette began a job in 1969 as a nurse's aide in a [[nursing home]] in [[Manhattan]]. She worked there for 35 years, retiring in 2004. Raymond Colvin died in 1993 in New York of a [[heart attack]] at age 37.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Barnes |first=Brooks |date=2009-11-26 |title=From Footnote to Fame in Civil Rights History |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/books/26colvin.html |access-date=2022-10-30 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Her son Randy is an accountant in [[Atlanta]] and father of Colvin's four grandchildren.<ref name=":1" />

==Legacy==
Colvin was a predecessor to the Montgomery bus boycott movement of 1955, which gained national attention. But she rarely told her story after moving to New York City. The discussions in the Black community began to shift toward black entrepreneurship rather than focusing solely on integration, although national civil rights legislation did not pass until 1964 and 1965. [[NPR]]'s Margot Adler has said that black organizations believed that Rosa Parks would be a better figure for a test case for integration because she was an adult, had a job, and had a middle-class appearance. They felt she had the maturity to handle being at the center of potential controversy.<ref name=Adler>{{cite news| last= Adler| first= Margot| title= Before Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette |publisher=[[NPR]]| date= March 15, 2009| url= http://www.npr.org/2009/03/15/101719889/before-rosa-parks-there-was-claudette-colvin| access-date= November 24, 2013}}</ref> Colvin's age and pregnancy in 1956 would cause her case to be overshadowed, but still she remains a trailblazer.

Colvin was not the only woman of the Civil Rights Movement who was left out of the history books. In the south, male ministers made up the overwhelming majority of leaders. This was partially a product of the outward face the NAACP was trying to broadcast and partially a product of the women fearing losing their jobs, which were often in the public school system.<ref>{{cite journal| last= Garrow| first= David J. |title= In Honor of Fred Gray: The Meaning of Montgomery| journal= [[Case Western Reserve Law Review]]| publisher= [[Case Western Reserve University]] |volume= 67| number= 4| year= 2017| pages= 1045–1053}}</ref>

In 2005, Colvin told the ''[[Montgomery Advertiser]]'' that she would not have changed her decision to remain seated on the bus: "I feel very, very proud of what I did," she said. "I do feel like what I did was a spark and it caught on."<ref>{{Cite news|title=Colvin helped light flame of civil rights |first= Sebastian |last= Kitchen | work=[[Montgomery Advertiser]]|<!--A;-->page=1|date=February 4, 2005}}</ref> "I'm not disappointed. Let the people know Rosa Parks was the right person for the [[Montgomery bus boycott|boycott]]. But also let them know that the attorneys took four other women to the Supreme Court to challenge the law that led to the end of segregation."<ref name= "Chicago1">{{cite news|title=2 other bus boycott heroes praise Parks' acclaim |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2005/11/16/2-other-bus-boycott-heroes-praise-parks-acclaim/ |first=Cassandra|last=Spratling|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|<!--WOMAN NEWS ; ZONE C;-->page=2|date=November 16, 2005}}</ref>

In an interview in 1998 with Paul Hendrickson, Colvin reflected back on her protest and why she did what she did. She stated, "I was done talking about “good hair” and “good skin” but not addressing our grievances. I was tired of adults complaining about how badly they were treated and not doing anything about it. I’d had enough of just feeling angry about [[Jeremiah Reeves]] [a classmate who had been sentenced to death in 1953 on specious charges that he had sexually assaulted white women]. I was tired of hoping for justice. When the moment came I was ready." This statement reflected on how African Americans were feeling in the years leading up to the civil rights movement in Montgomery, Alabama. It shows the growing frustration held and the want for change. Colvin's determination to stand up for herself paved the way for others to do the same.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Seniors |first=Paula Marie |date=September 2022 |title=Claudette Colvin, Mary Louise Smith: Excavating Black Girls' History |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/865971 |journal=Black History Bulletin |language=en |volume=85 |issue=2 |pages=13–15 |doi=10.1353/bhb.2022.0018 |issn=2153-4810|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

On May 20, 2018, Congressman [[Joe Crowley]] honored Colvin for her lifetime commitment to public service with a Congressional Certificate and an American flag.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Chairman Crowley Honors Civil Rights Pioneer Claudette Colvin|url=https://www.qgazette.com/articles/chairman-crowley-honors-civil-rights-pioneer-claudette-colvin/|date=May 30, 2018|website=Queens Gazette|access-date=May 16, 2020}}</ref>

==Recognition==
[[File:Claudette Colvin 2005.png|thumb|Colvin at the [[San Francisco Public Library]], January 2005.]]
[[File:Claudette Colvin 2014.png|thumb|Colvin speaking at [[Bethany Baptist Church (Newark, New Jersey)|Bethany Baptist Church]] for [[Women's History Month]], 2014.]]
Colvin has often said she is not angry that she did not get more recognition; rather, she is disappointed. She said she felt as if she was "getting [her] Christmas in January rather than the 25th."<ref name=MontAdvertiser>{{cite web| last= Kitchen| first= Sebastian| url= http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/claudette-colvin/ |title= Claudette Colvin| work= [[Montgomery Advertiser]]| via= MontgomeryBusBoycott.com| access-date= February 8, 2016}}</ref>

{{blockquote|I don’t think there’s room for many more icons. I think that history only has room enough for certain—you know, how many icons can you choose? So, you know, I think you compare history, like—most historians say Columbus discovered America, and it was already populated. But they don’t say that Columbus discovered America; they should say, for the European people, that is, you know, their discovery of the new world.<ref>{{Cite news| url= https://www.democracynow.org/2013/3/29/the_other_rosa_parks_now_73|title=The Other Rosa Parks: Now 73, Claudette Colvin Was First to Refuse Giving Up Seat on Montgomery Bus |work= [[Democracy Now!]] |access-date=November 3, 2017}}</ref>| Claudette Colvin}}

Colvin and her family have been fighting for recognition for her actions. In 2016, the [[Smithsonian Institution]] and its [[National Museum of African American History and Culture]] (NMAAHC) were challenged by Colvin and her family, who asked that Colvin be given a more prominent mention in the history of the civil rights movement. The NMAAHC has a section dedicated to Rosa Parks, which Colvin does not want taken away. Still her family's goal is to get the historical record right, and for officials to include Colvin's part of history. Colvin was not invited officially for the formal dedication of the museum, which opened to the public in September 2016.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite news|url=http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/11/30/claudette-colvin-civil-rights-movement-smithsonian/|title=Claudette Colvin Seeks Greater Recognition For Role In Making Civil Rights History| website= newyork.cbslocal.com| publisher= [[WINS (AM)|WINS]] | date= November 30, 2016| access-date=November 3, 2017|language=en}}</ref>

"All we want is the truth, why does history fail to get it right?" Colvin's sister, Gloria Laster, said. "Had it not been for Claudette Colvin, Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, and Mary Louise Smith, there may not have been a [[Thurgood Marshall]], a [[Martin Luther King Jr.|Martin Luther King]] or a [[Rosa Parks]]."<ref name="auto1"/>These women helped assemble and set in motion a legal and cultural shift. 

In 2000, [[Troy University at Montgomery]] opened the [[Rosa Parks Museum]] in Montgomery to honor the town's place in civil rights history. 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. She said, "They've already called it the Rosa Parks museum, so they've already made up their minds what the story is."<ref>{{Cite news| url= https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2000/dec/16/weekend.garyyounge| title= Weekend: Civil rights heroine Claudette Colvin| last= Younge| first= Gary| date= December 16, 2000| newspaper= The Guardian |access-date=November 3, 2017|language=en-GB| issn= 0261-3077}}</ref>

In 2010, the street Colvin lived on when she was a young girl was named Claudette Colvin Drive in her honor. It is located off Upper Wetumpka Road in [[Montgomery, Alabama]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2021/12/16/who-claudette-colvin-civil-rights-leader-arrested-occupying-bus-seat-montgomery/6507074001/#:~:text=The%20street%20she%20lived%20on,Upper%20Wetumpka%20Road%20in%20Montgomery. | title=Who was Claudette Colvin? Honoring the Montgomery woman arrested for refusing to give up bus seat|first=Molly |last=Weisner |website= Montgomery Advertiser |date=December 16, 2021}}</ref>

Reverend Joseph Rembert has said, "If nobody did anything for Claudette Colvin in the past why don't we do something for her right now?" He contacted Montgomery Councilmen Tracy Larkin (whose sister was on the bus in 1955 when Colvin was arrested) and Charles Jinright. In 2017, the Council passed a resolution for a proclamation honoring Colvin. March 2 was named Claudette Colvin Day in 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." Rembert said, "I know people have heard her name before, but I just thought we should have a day to celebrate her." Colvin could not attend the proclamation due to health concerns.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite news |url= http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2017/02/21/claudette-colvin-honored-city-council-tonight/98197322/|title=Claudette Colvin honored by Montgomery council |work= [[The Montgomery Advertiser]] |access-date=November 3, 2017|language=en}}</ref>

In 2019, a statue of Rosa Parks was unveiled in Montgomery, Alabama, and four granite markers were also unveiled near the statue on the same day to honor the four plaintiffs in ''Browder v. Gayle'', including Colvin.<ref name="stanford1">{{cite web| url= https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/browder-v-gayle-352-us-903 |title=Browder v. Gayle, 352 U.S. 903| publisher= The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute | website= kinginstitute.stanford.edu |date=April 24, 2017|access-date=December 9, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2019/dec/06/alabama-unveils-statue-civil-rights-icon-rosa-park/ |title=Alabama unveils statue of civil rights icon Rosa Parks| place= Richmond, Virginia | work= [[Richmond Free Press]] |date=2019 |access-date=December 9, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= https://wjla.com/news/nation-world/rosa-parks-civil-rights-statue-to-be-unveiled-in-alabama |title= Rosa Parks statue unveiled in Alabama on anniversary of her refusal to give up seat |website= [[WJLA]].com |access-date=December 9, 2019}}</ref>

In 2021, Colvin applied to the family court in Montgomery County, Alabama to have her juvenile record [[expungement|expunged]]. 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".<ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=2021-12-16|title=She refused to move bus seats months before Rosa Parks. At 82, her arrest is expunged|language=en|work=NPR|agency=Associated Press|url=https://www.npr.org/2021/12/16/1064890661/claudette-colvin-rosa-parks-arrest-record-expunged|access-date=2021-12-19}}</ref> The judge ordered that the juvenile record be expunged and destroyed in December 2021, stating that Colvin's refusal had "been recognized as a courageous act on her behalf and on behalf of a community of affected people".<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kirkland|first=Pamela|date=December 16, 2021|title=Claudette Colvin's juvenile record has been expunged, 66 years after she was arrested for refusing to give her bus seat to a White person|url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/16/us/claudette-colvin-juvenile-record-expunged/index.html|work=[[CNN]]}}</ref>

Also in 2021, a [[mural]] honoring Colvin was unveiled, along Claudette Colvin Drive, in [[Montgomery, Alabama]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2021/01/15/claudette-colvin-mural-unveiled-first-major-step-revitalizing-king-hill/4160390001/|title='An element of hope': Claudette Colvin mural unveiled as major step in revitalizing King Hill|first=Krista|last=Johnson|website=Montgomery Advertiser}}</ref>

== In culture ==
[[File:Claudette Colvin..png|thumb|Cover of [[Phillip Hoose]]'s ''Twice Towards Justice'']]
Former [[United States Poet Laureate|US Poet Laureate]] [[Rita Dove]] memorialized Colvin in her poem "Claudette Colvin Goes To Work",<ref>{{Cite web|date=May 12, 2017|title=Claudette Colvin Goes to Work|url=https://dissidentpoetry.wordpress.com/2017/05/12/claudette-colvin-goes-to-work/|url-status=live|access-date=Aug 25, 2019|website=Dissident Voices {{!}} The Poetry of Resistance|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019232856/https://dissidentpoetry.wordpress.com/2017/05/12/claudette-colvin-goes-to-work/ |archive-date=October 19, 2019 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POa8pO83xe4 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/POa8pO83xe4| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|title=John McCutcheon sings Rita Dove's 'Claudette Colvin' |date=March 28, 2007 |access-date=Aug 25, 2019|via= YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Young adult book ''[[Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice]]'', by [[Phillip Hoose]], was published in 2009 and won the [[National Book Award]] for Young People's Literature.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2009#.VG-XzzTF98E |title=National Book Awards - 2009 |access-date=2014-11-21 |publisher=National Book Foundation }}</ref>

A re-enactment of Colvin's resistance is portrayed in a 2014 episode of the comedy TV series ''[[Drunk History]]'' about Montgomery, Alabama. She was played by Mariah Iman Wilson.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

In the second season (2013) of the HBO drama series ''[[The Newsroom (U.S. TV series)|The Newsroom]]'', the lead character, Will McAvoy (played by [[Jeff Daniels]]), uses Colvin's refusal to comply with segregation as an example of how "one thing" can change everything. 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Newsroom - Will McAvoy On Historical Hypotheticals|date=November 11, 2013|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=herczHmAyno |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/herczHmAyno| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|access-date=October 27, 2017| via= YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

''The Little-Known Heroes: Claudette Colvin'', a children's picture book by Kaushay and Spencer Ford, was published in 2021.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thelittleknownheroes.com/product/claudette-colvin-hard-cover/|title=Claudette Colvin (Hard Cover)|date=February 26, 2021}}</ref>

In 2022, a biopic of Colvin titled ''Spark'' written by Niceole R. Levy and directed by [[Anthony Mackie]] was announced.<ref>{{cite web | last=Grass | first=Jonathan | title=Report: Biopic about civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin in the works | website=www.wsfa.com | date=2022-01-20 | url=https://www.wsfa.com/2022/01/20/report-biopic-about-civil-rights-pioneer-claudette-colvin-works/ | access-date=2022-01-21}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Aurelia Browder]]
* ''[[Keys v. Carolina Coach Co.]]''
* [[List of civil rights leaders]]
* [[Susie McDonald]]
* [[Montgomery bus boycott]]
* [[Irene Morgan]]
* [[E. D. Nixon]]
* [[Mary Louise Smith (civil rights activist)|Mary Louise Smith]]
* [[Viola White]]
* [[Dovey Johnson Roundtree]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Phillip Hoose. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), ''Claudette Colvin, Twice Toward Justice.'' (2009). {{ISBN|0-374-31322-9}}.
*Taylor Branch. New York, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, ''Parting The Waters - American in the King Years 1954-63''. (1988). {{ISBN|0-671-68742-5}}.

==External links==
{{Commons}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://www.democracynow.org/2013/3/29/the_other_rosa_parks_now_73 The Other Rosa Parks (Colvin interview with ''Democracy Now!'')]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040703185008/http://www.kudzumonthly.com/kudzu/apr02/Dream.html She had a Dream]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040628204322/http://uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/burns_daybreak.html ''Daybreak of Freedom: The Montgomery Bus Boycott'' (Preface)]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040716043544/http://print.google.com/print/doc?isbn=0807823600 ''Daybreak of Freedom: The Montgomery Bus Boycott''] (Excerpt)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051110032800/http://www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/activity.jsp?cid=388 " Tim Walker, ''Browder v. Gayle:'' The Women Before Rosa Parks"], Tolerance.org
* Vanessa de la Torre, [https://web.archive.org/web/20050911211713/http://inquirer.stanford.edu/Fall2004/vdlt/Unsung.html "In The Shadow of Rosa Parks: 'Unsung Hero' of Civil Rights Movement Speaks Out"], ''The Cardinal Inquirer'', January 20, 2005
<!--already in refs* [https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2000/dec/16/weekend7.weekend12 "She Would not be Moved"], ''The Guardian''-->
* Jim Auchmutey, [https://web.archive.org/web/20070313025328/http://www.pulsejournal.com/school/content/shared/news/nation/stories/0207_CIVIL_RIGHTS_COLVIN.html "An asterisk, not a star, of black history"], ''Pulsejournal'', February 7, 2005
* [https://rosaparksbiography.org/bio/let-us-look-at-jim-crow-for-the-criminal-he-is/ Let us Look at Jim Crow for the Criminal he is - Rosa Parks' bus stand and the long history of bus resistance] ''The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks'', Rosa Parks Biography by Jeanne Theoharis, Say Burgin, and Jessica Murray, [[City University of New York]]

{{Civil rights movement}}
{{African American topics}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colvin, Claudette}}
[[Category:1939 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Activists from Montgomery, Alabama]]
[[Category:Activists for African-American civil rights]]
[[Category:African-American activists]]
[[Category:American child activists]]
[[Category:Montgomery bus boycott]]
[[Category:Protests in Alabama]]
[[Category:Youth activists]]