Claudette Colvin (1955, Montgomery, Alabama)
Most people have heard of Rosa Parks, but what about Claudette Colvin? On the 2nd of March, 1955, nine months prior to Rosa Parks, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin became a little-known but pioneering figure of the Civil Rights Movement. After refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, police arrested the young girl.
A member of the NAACP Youth Council, and actively learning about the civil rights movement, Claudette was on her way home from the segregated Booker T. Washington High School. Convention held that if the bus became so crowded that the “white seats” at the front half of the bus were filled, and a white person was standing, then African Americans were supposed to get up from the seats at the front and move to the back. If there were no free seats, then African Americans had to stand.
On the 2nd of March, a white woman got on the bus and was left standing. The driver, Robert W. Cleere, told Colvin and three other black women to move to the back of the bus but Colvin refused. After several requests, Colvin repeatedly refused and the driver called the police. She was then handcuffed, forcibly removed from the bus, and arrested by two policemen. She began shouting that her constitutional rights were being violated.
A juvenile court case convicted Colvin of violating segregation laws, assault, and disturbing the peace. The court issued her a fine and sparked community outrage. Her Reverend bailed her out and told her that she brought the Revolution to Montgomery. Together with four other plaintiffs, Claudette Colvin became a part of Browder v Gayle (1956). The case determined bus segregation in Montgomery was unconstitutional. Despite going all the way to the federal Supreme Court, the Court upheld the decision and forced the state to end bus segregation permanently. This helped add further teeth to the Brown vs Board of Education decision that ultimately desegregated schools too.