Little Known Black History Fact

Behind Every Ground-Breaker, There's Someone Who Carried the Pickax and Chose the Right Spot

“I knew then and I know now that, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can't sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, 'This is not right.'” 

     The woman who made that statement was one of the many women who contributed to the desegregation of the transit system in Montgomery, Alabama. 

     I know, your mind is boggled, and you're sitting there sputtering "B-but, but it was Rosa P-p-parks who refused to give up her seat!" And you are right. Rosa Parks did refuse to give up her seat on the bus, and it was Rosa Parks who the nation rallied around when she was arrested for it. What a lot of people do not know is that Rosa Parks was not the first woman to perform that same act; as a matter of fact, Rosa Parks barely made the Top 10 (recorded) women to have done so!!

     The first recorded time a woman of color from Montgomery refused to give up her seat on the bus, it actually wasn't a woman at all, it was a 15 year old school girl named Claudette Colvin. She refused to give up her seat and was taken to jail 9 months before Rosa Parks. (Biography)

    Claudette Colvin was born in Montgomery, Alabama on September 5, 1939 to poor parents. She was a good student, earning mostly A's in her classes, and dreaming of making something of herself, like becoming president.

     "On March 2, 1955, 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." 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. " (Biography.com Editors, 2017)

     Colvin was arrested and jailed for violating segregation laws. She was out in a few hours though, her family's minister came and bailed her out. 

     So, the question is of course why Colvin was not the one that became the face of desegregation and civil rights. Leaders of the NAACP felt that she was too young for people to 'get behind', coupled with the fact that while waiting to go to court she'd become pregnant. They felt that was too negative an image to bring to the public, so they didn't publicize her case the way they did with Rosa Parks.

     When Colvin went to court she pled not guilty to the charges, but the court convicted her and put her on probation. This did not stop Fred Gray and Charles D. Langford from making her one of the plaintiffs (Aurelia S. Browder, Susie McDonald and Mary Louise Smith Jeanatta Reese were the others) in the Browder vs. Gayle (Gayle was the city's mayor) case, which was a suit filed on behalf of the African American women who had been penalized for not giving up their seats to a white person. 

     Claudette Colvin moved to New York shortly after the case was settled and Montgomery's segregation of public transit was ruled unconstitutional. 

     "While her role in the fight to end segregation in Montgomery may not be widely recognized, Colvin helped advance civil rights efforts in the city." (Biography) A lot of people who knew about her case felt encouraged by it; it gave them such a sense of accomplishment and pride that by the time Rosa Parks came along they were more than ready to take up the charge. 

REFERENCES

Biography.com Editors (February 10, 2017). Claudette Colvin Biography. The Biography.com Website. Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/claudette-colvin-11378

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