Our History is American History - Claudette Colvin

Age 15 is kind of a weird age. You're definitely a teenager but you can't drive yet outside of a permit and can't work. A lot of parents say, you can't date until you're 16.  You're in high school but not quite old enough to feel fully high school-ish b/c you still need your folks to take you where you need to go. LOL! Probably why nothing I did at 15 really sticks out in my memory except a few things. One core memory is from when I was 15, me and my cousin, Danielle (aka BG) were home from school and like most youngsters, we were HUNGRY. So we decided of all things, to boil some eggs... IN THE MICROWAVE! Now there are a lot of things you can do in life, but please don't ever in your life... DO THAT. Egg Everywhere! Egg Funk Smell Everywhere! Sad this is a core memory for me. I wish I had a more noble memory at age 15 such as being a 15 year old civil rights activist, like Claudette Colvin. ✊

Claudette Colvin is a civil rights activist who, nine months before Rosa Parks, refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. She was arrested and became one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, which ruled that Montgomery's segregated bus system was unconstitutional.

Colvin was born on September 5, 1939, in Montgomery, Alabama. Growing up in one of Montgomery's poorer neighborhoods, Colvin studied hard in school and made good grades and aspired to become president one day. On March 2, 1955, a 15 year old 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. She refused, saying, "It's my constitutional right to sit here as much as that lady. I paid my fare, it's my constitutional right." It was Negro history month, and at her segregated school they had been studying black leaders like Harriet Tubman, who led more than 70 slaves to freedom through the network of safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. They were also studying about Sojourner Truth, a former slave who became an abolitionist and women's rights activist. Colvin felt compelled to stand her ground. "I felt like Sojourner Truth was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman was pushing down on the other—saying, 'Sit down girl!' I was glued to my seat," she later told Newsweek.

After her refusal to give up her seat, Colvin was arrested on several charges, including violating the city's segregation laws. For several hours, she sat in jail, completely terrified. "I was really afraid, because you just didn't know what white people might do at that time," Colvin later said. After her minister paid her bail, she went home where she and her family stayed up all night out of concern for possible retaliation. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) briefly considered using Colvin's case to challenge the segregation laws, but they decided against it because of her age. She also had become pregnant and they thought an unwed mother would attract too much negative attention in a public legal battle. Black organizations felt Parks, who was the secretary for the NAACP, would be a good icon because "she was an adult.”

In court, Colvin opposed the segregation law by declaring herself not guilty. The court, however, ruled against her and put her on probation. Despite the light sentence, Colvin could not escape the court of public opinion. The once-quiet student was branded a troublemaker by some, and she had to drop out of college. Her reputation also made it impossible for her to find a job.

Colvin gave birth to a son, Raymond in March 1956 and then left Montgomery for New York City in 1958, 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. Colvin said that after her actions on the bus, she was branded a troublemaker by many in her community. She had to drop out of college and struggled in the local environment. In New York, the young Claudette Colvin and her son Raymond initially lived with her older sister, Velma Colvin. Claudette got a job as a nurse's aide in a nursing home in Manhattan. She worked there for 35 years, from 1969 until she retired in 2004.