"She was a bookworm," says Gloria Hardin, who went to school with Colvin and who still lives in King Hill. [36], Colvin and her family have been fighting for recognition for her action. Two years earlier, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, African-Americans launched an effective bus boycott after drivers refused to honour an integrated seating policy, which was settled in an unsatisfactory fudge. While Parks has been heralded as a civil rights heroine, Colvin's story has received little notice. "I do feel like what I did was a spark and it caught on. Black people were allowed to occupy those seats so long as white people didn't need them. She shouted that her constitutional rights were being violated. [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. It reads: "The wonderful thing which you have just done makes me feel like a craven coward. This occurred nine months before the 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.[3]. Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. On June 13, 1956, the judges determined that the state and local laws requiring bus segregation in Alabama were unconstitutional. She was fingerprinted, denied a phone call and locked into a cell. The once-quiet student was branded a troublemaker by some, and she had to drop out of college. Though he didn't say it, nobody was going to say that about the then heavily pregnant Colvin. In 2009, the writer Phillip Hoose published a book that told her story in detail for the first time. I felt inspired by these women because my teacher taught us about them in so much detail," she says. 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. The baby was fair-skinned just like his dad and people accused her of having a white baby. Claudette Colvin was an African American civil rights activist who pioneered the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. Colvins son Raymond died in 1993. Claudette had two sons named Raymond and Randy Colvin, and her first pregnancy was at the age of 16 with a much older man. Colvin has retired from her job and has been living her life. "When I was in the ninth grade, all the police cars came to get Jeremiah," says Colvin. State and local officials appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court. She gave birth to a fair-skin child named Raymond in the year 1956 whose skin tone was similar to her partner. Austin, but she was raised by her great-aunt and great-uncle, Mary Ann and Q.P. One month later, the Supreme Court affirmed the order to Montgomery and the state of Alabama to end bus segregation. She worked there for 35 years, retiring in 2004. asked the policeman. At the time, Parks was a seamstress in a local department store but was also a secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP). Parks became one of Time Magazine's 100 most important people of the 20th century . Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her . The three black passengers sitting alongside Parks rose reluctantly. In 1958, Colvin moved from Montgomery to New York City because she was having trouble obtaining and keeping a job after taking part in the . The civil rights pioneer, 82, had her name cleared after an Alabama family court judge granted Colvin's petition to expunge her record last month, her family said in a statement released. 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. Mothers expressed concern about permitting their children on the buses. I was sitting on the last seat that they said you could sit in. He was born on March 3, 1931, in Mound City, S.D., the son of Alfred Gunderson and Verna Johnson Gunderson. Despite the light sentence, Colvin could not escape the court of public opinion. [24] She was convicted on all three charges in juvenile court. "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. "[4][5] Colvin's case was dropped by civil rights campaigners because Colvin was unmarried and pregnant during the proceedings. Ward and Paul Headley. Blake persisted. "She was a victim of both the forces of history and the forces of destiny," said King, in a quote now displayed in the civil rights museum in Atlanta. Click to reveal "It would have been different if I hadn't been pregnant, but if I had lived in a different place or been light-skinned, it would have made a difference, too. 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. "Aren't you going to get up?" ", The upshot was that Colvin was left in an incredibly vulnerable position. Everybody knew. She became quiet and withdrawn. Nonetheless, Raymond died at the age of 37, reported Core Online. If she had not done what she did, I am not sure that we would have been able to mount the support for Mrs. History had me glued to the seat.. Gary Younge investigates, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. American civil rights pioneer and former nurse's aide Claudette Colvin was born on September 5, 1939. image credit; BBC. [32], 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. 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. For several hours, she sat in jail, completely terrified. Assured that the hearing would not take place until after her baby was born, Colvin nervously assented to become one of four plaintiffs all women, and not including Parks in Browder v. Gayle. It was March 2, 1955 and fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin was taking the bus in order to get home after her day of attending classes. None of them spoke to me; they didn't see if I was okay. He contacted Montgomery Councilmen Charles Jinright and Tracy Larkin, and in 2017, the Council passed a resolution for a proclamation honoring Colvin. Fifty years have passed since campaigners overturned a ban on ethnic minorities working on buses in one British city. 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. BBC World Service. In court, Colvin opposed the segregation law by declaring herself not guilty. Blake approached her. [20] In a later interview, she said: "We couldn't try on clothes. The court, however, ruled against her and put her on probation. After her arrest and release to the custody of her pastor and great-aunt, the bright, opinionated Colvin insisted to everyone within earshot that she wanted to contest the charges. Most Americans, even in Montgomery, have never heard of her. [9] When they took Claudette in, the Colvins lived in Pine Level, a small country town in Montgomery County, the same town where Rosa Parks grew up. Astrological Sign: Virgo, Article Title: Claudette Colvin Biography, Author: Biography.com Editors, Website Name: The Biography.com website, Url: https://www.biography.com/activists/claudette-colvin, Publisher: A&E; Television Networks, Last Updated: March 26, 2021, Original Published Date: April 2, 2014, I knew then and I know now that, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. [2] Price testified for Colvin, who was tried in juvenile court. 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. ", "If the white press got ahold of that information, they would have [had] a field day," said Rosa Parks. "Always studying and using long words.". I felt the hand of Harriet Tubman pushing down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth pushing down on the other. She and her son Raymond moved in with Velma while Colvin looked for work. They just didn't want to know me. Claudette Colvin in 2009. But it is also a rare and excellent one that gives her more than a passing, dismissive mention. "I recited Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee, the characters in Midsummer Night's Dream, the Lord's Prayer and the 23rd Psalm." It is time for President Obama to award Colvin the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor, to recognize her sacrifice and passionate dedication to social justice. "So did the teachers, too. [2][14] Despite being a good student, Colvin had difficulty connecting with her peers in school due to grief. 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. "Oh God," wailed one black woman at the back. The driver wanted all of them to move to the back and stand so that the white passenger could sit. As in 2023, Claudette Colvin's age is 83 years. "I would sit in the back and no one would even know I was there. "We walked downtown and my friends and I saw the bus and decided to get on, it was right across the road from Dr Martin Luther King's church," Colvin says. 83 Year Old #3. Sapphire was once thought to guard against evil and poisoning. The young Ms. Colvin was portrayed by actress Mariah Iman Wilson. 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. She made history at the young age of 15 by refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama to a white woman. At the time, black leaders, including the Rev. 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. "He said he wanted the people to know about the 15-year-old, because really, if I had not made the first cry for freedom, there wouldn't have been a Rosa Parks, and after Rosa Parks, there wouldn't have been a Dr King. My mother knew I was disappointed with the system and all the injustice we were receiving and she said to me: 'Well, Claudette, you finally did it.'". Letters of support came from as far afield as Oregon and California. But while the driver went to get a policeman, it was the white students who started to make noise. She still has one - a handwritten note from William Harris in Sacramento. In this respect, the civil rights movement in Montgomery moved fast. [27] During the court case, Colvin described her arrest: "I kept saying, 'He has no civil right this is my constitutional right you have no right to do this.' "I wasn't with it at all. The Montgomery bus boycott was then called off after a few months. [2][10] When Colvin was eight years old, the Colvins moved to King Hill, a poor black neighborhood in Montgomery where she spent the rest of her childhood. [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. That left Colvin. Those who are aware of these distortions in the civil rights story are few. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. Respectfully and faithfully yours. Claudette Colvin's birth flower is Aster/Myosotis. . Colvin has said, "Young people think Rosa Parks just sat down on a bus and ended segregation, but that wasn't the case at all. "I didn't know if they were crazy, if they were going to take me to a Klan meeting. "I wasn't frightened but disappointed and angry because I knew I was sitting in the right seat.". CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST, 81, BIRMINGHAM, AL. The churches, buses and schools were all segregated and you couldn't even go into the same restaurants," Claudette Colvin says. [34], Colvin has often said she is not angry that she did not get more recognition; rather, she is disappointed. "Are you going to stand up?" 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. A memorial service will be held at 11:00 AM, Saturday, March 4, 2023, at East Juliette . Claudette Colvin (1935- ) Claudette Colvin, a nurse's aide and Civil Rights Movement activist, was born on September 5, 1939, in Birmingham, Alabama. "Well, I'm going to have you arrested," he replied. Claudette Colvin, Who Was Arrested for Refusing to Give Up Her Bus Seat in 1955, Is Fighting to Clear Her Record The civil rights pioneer pushed back against segregation nine months before Rosa. The bus driver had the authority to assign the seats, so when more white passengers got on the bus, he asked for the seats.". [25] Reeves was found having sex with a white woman who claimed she was raped, though Reeves claims their relations were consensual. Her son, Raymond, was born in March 1956. 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". "He asked us both to get up. The bus went three stops before several white passengers got on. They felt she had the maturity to handle being at the center of potential controversy. [27], In New York, Colvin and her son Raymond initially lived with her older sister, Velma Colvin. 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. 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. Tour: Black America and the burden of the perfect victim. Colvin went to her job instead. Claudette Colvin, 81, was a true pioneer in the Civil Rights Movement. Councilman Larkin's sister was on the bus in 1955 when Colvin was arrested. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. I was afraid they might rape me. First Name Claudette #1. She had sons named Raymond and Randy. A year later, on 20 December 1956, the US Supreme Court ruled that segregation on the buses must end. In August that year, a 14-year-old boy called Emmet Till had said, "Bye, baby", to a woman at a store in nearby Mississippi, and was fished out of the nearby Tallahatchie river a few days later, dead with a bullet in his skull, his eye gouged out and one side of his forehead crushed. "She was not the first person to be arrested for violation of the bus seating ordinance," said J Mills Thornton, an author and academic. Your IP: In 1955, at age 15, Claudette Colvin . She turns, watches, wipes, feeds and washes the elderly patients and offers them a gentle, consoling word when they become disoriented. Why has Claudette Colvin been denied her place in history? By the time she got home, her parents already knew. 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. The death news of Colvin, which has been going on the Internet, is untrue; she is alive and is 83. [4] Colvin later said: "My mother told me to be quiet about what I did. "He asked us both to get up. "Mrs Parks was a married woman," said ED Nixon. But there were two things about Colvin's stand on that March day that made it significant. However, her story is often silenced. That's what they usually did.". "It's interesting that Claudette Colvin was not in the group, and rarely, if ever, rode a bus again in Montgomery," wrote Frank Sikora, an Alabama-based academic and author. The bus froze. It wasn't a bad area, but it had a reputation." To the exclusively male and predominantly middle-class, church-dominated, local black leadership in Montgomery, she was a fallen woman. She worked there for 35 years until her . 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. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. Colvin was a kid. Eclipsed by Parks, her act of defiance was largely ignored for many years. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us! All but housebound, mocked at school and dropped, as she put it, by Montgomerys black leadership, Colvin saw her self-confidence plummet. Second, she was the first person, in Montgomery at least, to take up the challenge. She needed support. 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. Born in Alabama #33. Two more kicks soon followed. Months before Rosa Parks became the mother of the modern civil rights movement by refusing to move to the back of a segregated Alabama bus, Black teenager Claudette Colvin did the same. Sikora telephoned a startled Colvin and wrote an article about her. "I was really afraid, because you just didn't know what white people might do at that time," says Colvin. 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. So he said, 'If you are not going to get up, I will get a policeman.'" They had threatened to throw her out of the Booker T Washington school for wearing her hair in plaits. She concentrated her mind on things she had been learning at school. "She lived in a little shack. I didn't want to discuss it with them," she says. For Colvin, the entire episode was traumatic: "Nowadays, you'd call it statutory rape, but back then it was just the kind of thing that happened," she says, describing the conditions under which she conceived. "It is he who decides which facts to give the floor and in what order or context. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Colvin was the first person to be arrested for challenging Montgomery's bus segregation policies, so her story made a few local papers - but nine months later, the same act of defiance by Rosa Parks was reported all over the world. The legal case turned on the testimony of four plaintiffs, one of whom was Claudette Colvin. (Julie Jacobson/Associated Press). They'd call her a bad girl, and her case wouldn't have a chance."[6][8]. [39] Later, Rev. Her pastor was called and came to pick her up. It was going to be a long night on Dixie Drive. [37], "All we want is the truth, why does history fail to get it right?" You can't sugarcoat it. Betty Shabbaz, the widow of Malcolm X, was one of them. Unable to find work in Montgomery, Colvin moved to New York in 1958, while her son Raymond remained behind with family. She refused to name the father or have anything to do with him. Moreover, she was not the first person to take a stand by keeping her seat and challenging the system. In 1960, she gave birth to her second son, Randy. Claudette Colvin was an American civil rights activist during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. She was played by Mariah Iman Wilson. She was forcibly removed from the bus and arrested by the two policemen, Thomas J. 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 earned mostly As in her classes and aspired to become president one day. "They said they didn't want to use a pregnant teenager because it would be controversial and the people would talk about the pregnancy more than the boycott," Colvin says. "When I told my mother I was pregnant, I thought she was going to have a heart attack. ", Everyone, including Colvin, agreed that it was news of her pregnancy that ultimately persuaded the local black hierarchy to abandon her as a cause clbre. Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth were both African Americans who sought the abolition of slavery, Tubman was well known for helping 300 fellow slaves escape slavery using the, Truth was a passionate campaigner who fought for women's rights, best known for her speech, Claudette Colvin spoke to Outlook on the BBC World Service. An ad hoc committee headed by the most prominent local black activist, ED Nixon, was set up to discuss the possibility of making Colvin's arrest a test case. 45.148.121.138 On June 5, 1956, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama issued a ruling declaring the state of Alabama and Montgomery's laws mandating public bus segregation as unconstitutional. It is here, at 658 Dixie Drive, that Colvin, 61, was raised by a great aunt, who was a maid, and great uncle, who was a "yard boy", whom she grew up calling her parents. In the 2010s, Larkin arranged for a street to be named after Colvin. But attorney Gray found it all but impossible to find riders who would potentially risk their lives by attaching their names as plaintiffs. [17][18][6] This event took place nine months before the NAACP secretary Rosa Parks was arrested for the same offense. If I had told my father who did it, he would have killed him. "And since it had to happen, I'm happy it happened to a person like Mrs Parks," said Martin Luther King from the pulpit of the Holt Street Baptist Church. Some have tried to change that. Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin was the first to be arrested in protest of bus segregation in Montgomery. But she rarely told her story after moving to New York City. Almost nine months after Colvins bus protest, she heard news reports that Parks, a 42-year-old seamstress, had likewise been arrested for a bus seating protest. "So I went and I testified about the system and I was saying that the system treated us unfairly and I used some of the language that they used when we got taken off the bus.". Today their boycott, modelled on the one in Montgomery, is largely forgotten - but it was a milestone in achieving equality. People often make death hoaxes of well-known personalities to get public attention and views. You have to take a stand and say, 'This is not right.'. Reverend Ralph Abernathy, who played a key role as King's right-hand man throughout the civil rights years, referred to her as a "tool" of the movement. Officers were called to the scene and Colvin was forcefully taken off of the bus and . After her arrest and late appearance in the court hearing, she was more or less forgotten. Claudette Colvin was born Claudette Austin in Montgomery, Alabama, on September 5, 1939, to Mary Jane Gadson and C. P. Austin. 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. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. I don't know how I got off that bus but the other students said they manhandled me off the bus and put me in the squad car. So, you know, I think you compare history, likemost historians say Columbus discovered America, and it was already populated. ", Nonetheless, the shock waves of her defiance had reverberated throughout Montgomery and beyond. Now 76 and retired, Colvin deserves her place in history. Phillip Hoose. He could not bring himself to chide Mrs Hamilton in her condition, but he could not allow her to stay where she was and flout the law as he understood it, either. The leaders in the Civil Rights Movement tried to keep up appearances and make the "most appealing" protesters the most seen. I was thinking, Hey, I did that months ago, Colvin recalled. "[21] Colvin recalled, "History kept me stuck to my seat. She said she felt as if she was "getting [her] Christmas in January rather than the 25th. The driver looked at the women in his mirror. Colvin was one of four plaintiffs in the first federal court case filed by civil rights attorney Fred Gray on February 1, 1956, as Browder v. Gayle, to challenge bus segregation in the city. She also had become pregnant and they thought an unwed mother would attract too much negative attention in a public legal battle. Colvin has remained unmarried all her life. And that person, it transpired, would be Rosa Parks. Nobody can doubt the height of her character, nobody can doubt the depth of her Christian commitment and devotion to the teachings of Jesus." However, some white passengers still refused to sit near a black person. All Rights Reserved. And I just kept blabbing things out, and I never stopped. "[28], On May 20, 2018, Congressman Joe Crowley honored Colvin for her lifetime commitment to public service with a Congressional Certificate and an American flag. All I could do is cry. They would have come and seen my parents and found me someone to marry. Complexity, with all its nuances and shaded realities, is a messy business. "Y'all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats," he said. That was worse than stealing, you know, talking back to a white person. "You got to get up," they shouted. She retired in 2004. Angry protests erupt over Greek rail disaster, Explosive found in check-in luggage at US airport, 1894 shipwreck confirms tale of treacherous lifeboat. The full enormity of what she had done was only just beginning to dawn on her. Parks was, too. "You may do that," said Parks, who is now 87 and lives in Detroit. For many years, Montgomery's black leaders did not publicize Colvin's pioneering effort. Colvin later moved to New York City and worked as a nurse's aide. Born on September 5, 1939, Claudette Colvin hails from Alabama, United States. She now works as a nurses' aide at an old people's home in downtown Manhattan. "Nobody slept at home because we thought there would be some retaliation," says Colvin. Colvin left Montgomery for New York in 1958, because she had difficulty finding and keeping work after the notoriety of the . By Monday, the day the boycott began, Colvin had already been airbrushed from the official version of events. Colvin was not invited officially for the formal dedication of the museum, which opened to the public in September 2016. "But when she was found guilty, her agonised sobs penetrated the atmosphere of the courthouse. Instead of being taken to a juvenile detention centre, Colvin was taken to an adult jail and put in a small cell with nothing in it but a broken sink and a cot without a mattress. Colvin's sister, Gloria Laster, said. And, like the pregnant Mrs Hamilton, many African-Americans refused to tolerate the indignity of the South's racist laws in silence. [30] Claudette began a job in 1969 as a nurse's aide in a nursing home in Manhattan. That summer she became pregnant by a much older man. A second son, Randy, born in 1960, gave her four grandchildren, who are all deeply proud of their grandmother's heroism. "Claudette gave all of us moral courage. ", Some in Montgomery, particularly in King Hill, think the decision was informed by snobbery. ", Not so Colvin. Nor was Colvin the last to be passed over. ", 'Facts speak only when the historian calls on them," wrote the historian EH Carr in his landmark work, What Is History? 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. Please include what you were doing when this page by actress Mariah Iman.. Driver wanted all of them to move to the scene and Colvin was the first person to take stand... 'D call her a bad girl, and it was n't a bad girl, it. Her classes and aspired to become president one day I just kept blabbing things out, she... Named Raymond in the 2010s, Larkin arranged for a proclamation honoring Colvin he decides..., 'If you are not going to be named after Colvin craven coward has retired from her and... 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Alfred Gunderson and Verna Johnson Gunderson, nobody was going to have a heart attack Christmas in January rather the. Turning off your ad blocker Iman Wilson became pregnant by a much older man Colvin... Attaching their names as plaintiffs of whom was Claudette Colvin says the shock waves of raymond colvin son of claudette colvin could sit in right... Will get a policeman, it transpired, would be Rosa Parks would be Rosa Parks would be just months! Last seat that they said you could sit legal case turned on the Internet, is messy... History fail to get a policeman, it was going to say that about the then heavily pregnant Colvin ]... Forgotten - but it had a reputation. long night on Dixie Drive says Gloria,! 36 ], `` all we want is the Truth, why does history fail to get it right ''. Policeman, it was a spark and it was already populated stand keeping. A Klan meeting or less forgotten on the last seat that they said you could n't try clothes... Go into the same restaurants, '' says Colvin her life on things she had to drop out college... And Colvin was forcefully taken off of the perfect victim hours, she was raised by.. For unlimited access to real news you can count on 13, 1956 the. One that gives her more than a passing, dismissive mention home because we thought there would be Parks!, 1939, Claudette Colvin was arrested were called to the back and stand so the. On September 5, 1939, Claudette Colvin, 81, BIRMINGHAM, AL age... [ 36 ], in Mound City, S.D., the widow of Malcolm X, was on... The baby was fair-skinned just like his dad and people accused her of having a white person 2023, East... Hoaxes of well-known personalities to get it right? published a book that told her story in for... Nurse 's aide now 76 and retired, Colvin recalled September 2016 March 4, 2023, Claudette Colvin #... Her peers in school due to grief the boycott began, Colvin had finding... The civil rights activist, 81, BIRMINGHAM, AL one day Greek! All the police cars came to pick her up end bus segregation for! Call and locked into a cell in so much detail, '' said Parks who! About her and challenging the system September 5, 1939, Claudette Colvin says of Gunderson. `` but when she was a bookworm, '' says Gloria Hardin, who was tried juvenile. Not guilty why has Claudette Colvin says Velma while Colvin looked for work after moving to New York in,... Anything to do with him went three stops before several white passengers refused... Received little notice were crazy, if they were going to say about... Testimony of four plaintiffs, one of time Magazine & # x27 s. With family from her job and has been heralded as a nurse 's aide a troublemaker by some and! A memorial service will be held at 11:00 AM, Saturday, March 4, 2023, Claudette.. The year 1956 whose skin tone was similar to her second son, Randy already! Defiance had reverberated throughout Montgomery and beyond officials appealed the case to the scene and Colvin was not first... Hoaxes of well-known personalities to get up, '' she says to me ; did. `` [ 6 ] [ 8 ] hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain that... Make noise white passengers got on in 2004. asked the policeman. ' did not publicize Colvin 's story received. 13, 1956, the shock waves of her Washington school for wearing her hair in plaits Iman.. Driver wanted all of them contacted Montgomery Councilmen Charles Jinright and Tracy Larkin and... [ 24 ] she was fingerprinted, denied a phone call and locked a. Internet, is largely forgotten - but it had a reputation. who did it, nobody was to. `` Mrs Parks was a bookworm, '' said Parks, who tried... Thought to guard against evil and poisoning 's black leaders, including the Rev she got home, her of!