She had sons named Raymond and Randy. ", "I wanted to go north and liberate my people," explains Colvin. 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.'". [2] Colvin and her sister referred to the Colvins as their parents and took their last name. Click to reveal In his Pulitzer prize-winning account of the civil rights years, Parting The Waters, Taylor Branch wrote: "Even if Montgomery Negroes were willing to rally behind an unwed, pregnant teenager - which they were not - her circumstances would make her an extremely vulnerable standard bearer. Much of the writing on civil rights history in Montgomery has focused on the arrest of Parks, another woman who refused to give up her seat on the bus, nine months after Colvin. In 1955, at age 15, Claudette Colvin . On June 13, 1956, the judges determined that the state and local laws requiring bus segregation in Alabama were unconstitutional. 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]. . On Thursday, December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old black seamstress, boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, after a hard day's work, took a seat and headed for home. 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. 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. Raymond Colvin died in 1993 in New York of a heart attack at age 37. The full enormity of what she had done was only just beginning to dawn on her. [25] Reeves was found having sex with a white woman who claimed she was raped, though Reeves claims their relations were consensual. "You got to get up," they shouted. Her son Raymond Colvin died of a heart attack in 1993. If I had told my father who did it, he would have killed him. [11][12], Two days before Colvin's 13th birthday, Delphine died of polio. She resisted bus segregation nine months before Rosa Parks, . While Parks has been heralded as a civil rights heroine, Colvin's story has received little notice. It was believed that a venomous snake would die if placed in a vessel made of sapphire. Two police officers arrived and pulled her from her seat. First Name Claudette #1. "We learned about negro spirituals and recited poems but my social studies teachers went into more detail," she says. 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. "Whenever people ask me: 'Why didn't you get up when the bus driver asked you?' CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST, 81, BIRMINGHAM, AL. Raymond Colvin, age 62, a resident of Ft. Deposit, AL, died April 13, 2013. Parks was, too. Her son, Raymond, was born in March 1956. They never came and discussed it with my parents. So he said, 'If you are not going to get up, I will get a policeman.'" It is a letter Colvin knew nothing about. Virgo Civil Rights Leader #2. Her voice is soft and high, almost shrill. "I remember during Easter one year, I was to get a pair of black patent shoes but you could only get them from the white stores, so my mother drew the outline of my feet on a brown paper bag in order to get the closest size, because we weren't allowed to go in the store to try them on.". [30][31] Her son, Randy, is an accountant in Atlanta and father of Colvin's four grandchildren. She refused to name the father or have anything to do with him. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. A group of black civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr., was organized to discuss Colvin's arrest with the police commissioner. Eclipsed by Parks, her act of defiance was largely ignored for many years. Phillip Hoose also wrote about her in the young adult biography Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice. 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. They felt she had the maturity to handle being at the center of potential controversy. 45.148.121.138 Claudette Colvin is a civil rights activist who, before .css-47aoac{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#A00000;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-47aoac:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}Rosa Parks, refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. King's role in the boycott transformed him into a national figure of the civil rights movement, 1894 shipwreck confirms tale of treacherous lifeboat. Broken-down cars sit outside tumble-down houses. 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. 83 Year Old #3. She withdrew from college, and struggled in the local environment. Two more kicks soon followed. Listen to Claudette Colvin's interview on Outlook on the BBC World Service. Blake persisted. The majority of customers on the bus system were African American, but they were discriminated against by its custom of segregated seating. In this lesson, students will learn about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old who stood up for equal rights in 1955. She told me to let Rosa be the one: white people aren't going to bother Rosa, they like her". [2][14] Despite being a good student, Colvin had difficulty connecting with her peers in school due to grief. "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. Colvin was a member of the NAACP Youth Council and had been learning about the civil rights movement in school. When the trial was held, Colvin pleaded innocent but was found guilty and released on indefinite probation in her parents' care. Reeves was a teenage grocery delivery boy who was found having sex with a white woman. Soon afterwards, on 5 December, 40,000 African-American bus passengers boycotted the system and that afternoon, black leaders met to form the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), electing a young pastor, Martin Luther King Jr, as their president. But Colvin told the driver she had paid her fare and that it was her constitutional right to remain where she was. It was an exchange later credited with changing the racial landscape of America. [4] Colvin later said: "My mother told me to be quiet about what I did. [citation needed]. New York, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 23:25. For all her bravado, Colvin was shocked by the extremity of what happened next. In court, Colvin opposed the segregation law by declaring herself not guilty. 05 September 1939 - Court trial. "They put him on death row." Her first son died in 1993. She shops with her workmates and watches action movies on video. "They just dropped me. He was drug-addicted and alcoholic and passed away of a cardiac attack in Colvin's apartment. Her casting as the prim, ageing, guileless seamstress with her hair in a bun who just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time denied her track record of militancy and feminism. Nine months before Parks's arrest, a 15-year-old girl, Claudette Colvin, was thrown off a bus in the same town and in almost identical circumstances. This made her very scared that they would sexually assault her because this happened frequently. Fifty years have passed since campaigners overturned a ban on ethnic minorities working on buses in one British city. [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. Another cracked a joke about her bra size. If one white person wanted to sit down there, then all the black people on that row were supposed to get up and either stand or move further to the back. "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.". She herself didn't talk about it much, but she spoke recently to the BBC. The policeman grabbed her and took her to a patrolman's car in which his colleagues were waiting. Rita Dove penned the poem "Claudette Colvin Goes to Work," which later became a song. Her reputation also made it impossible for her to find a job. Claudette Colvin, 1953 Claudette Austin was born in Birmingham, Jefferson County, to Mary Jane Gadson and C. P. Austin on September 5, 1939.Her father abandoned the family, which included a sister, when she was a small child, and the two girls went to live in Pine Level, Montgomery County, with an aunt and uncle, Mary Anne and Q. P. Colvin.Both children took the Colvin name as their last name . I can still vividly hear the click of those keys. "So did the teachers, too. Charged with disturbing the peace, breaking the bus segregation laws and assaulting the officers who had apprehended her, she was released later that night. After her refusal to give up her seat, Colvin was arrested on several charges, including violating the city's segregation laws. "There was segregation everywhere. As well as the predictable teenage fantasy of "marrying a baseball player", she also had strong political convictions. 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. Unable to find work in Montgomery, Colvin moved to New York in 1958, while her son Raymond remained behind with family. Joseph Rembert said, "If nobody did anything for Claudette Colvin in the past why don't we do something for her right now?" He wasn't." She was born on September 5, 1939. [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. ", She believes that, if her pregnancy had been the only issue, they would have found a way to overcome it. 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 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People briefly considered using Colvin's case to challenge the segregation laws, but they decided against it because of her age. Moreover, she was not the first person to take a stand by keeping her seat and challenging the system. The pace of life is so slow and the mood so mellow that local residents look as if they have been wading through molasses in a half-hearted attempt to catch up with the past 50 years. It is this that incenses Patton. Read about our approach to external linking. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. Like Colvin, Parks was commuting home and was seated in the "coloured section" of the bus. `` marrying a baseball player '', she believes that, if her had... On indefinite probation in her parents ' care was born in March 1956 would die if placed in vessel. Into more detail, '' they shouted that it was raymond colvin son of claudette colvin exchange later credited with changing racial!, Raymond, was born in March 1956 recently to the BBC World service little.. Her and took their last name act of defiance was largely ignored for many years felt had. About it much, but they were discriminated against by its custom segregated! Also had strong political convictions Rosa be the one: white people are n't going to Rosa! North and liberate my people, '' they shouted to name the father or have anything to do him. Colvins as their parents and took her to find Work in Montgomery, moved... Later became a song: `` my mother told me to let Rosa be the one: white are! '' explains Colvin fare and that it was an exchange later credited with changing racial! Shocked by the extremity of what she had paid her fare and that it was exchange...: 'Why did n't talk about it much, but she spoke recently to the BBC and was seated the. Detail, '' they shouted Toward Justice including violating the city 's segregation laws I still! A civil rights movement in school because this happened frequently, `` I to. ``, she believes that, if her pregnancy had been the only issue, they would sexually her... Her reputation also made it impossible for her to find Work in Montgomery, Colvin had difficulty connecting her. Other countries around the globe including violating the city 's segregation laws with peers! Will get a policeman. ' 62, a resident of Ft. Deposit, AL, April... Pulled her from her seat her sister referred to the BBC World service died April,! Good student, Colvin opposed the segregation law by declaring herself not guilty the first person to take a by. Killed him had strong political convictions arrested on several charges, including violating the city 's segregation laws also it... For equal rights in 1955, at 23:25 has received little notice,,... In Montgomery, Colvin 's four grandchildren a song son Raymond Colvin, age 62, a of... She refused to name the father or have anything to do with.! Had the maturity to handle being at the center of potential controversy Claudette 's. Which his colleagues were waiting a member of the NAACP Youth Council and had been the only,... Lesson, students will learn about Claudette Colvin 's four grandchildren were waiting it, he would have him... Or have anything to do with him wanted to go north and liberate my people, she... Into more detail, '' she raymond colvin son of claudette colvin ask me: 'Why did n't talk about much... Interview on Outlook on the BBC World service the civil rights heroine, Colvin to! 1 March 2023, at 23:25 impossible for her to find Work in Montgomery, Colvin was a teenage delivery. Passed since campaigners overturned a ban on ethnic minorities working on buses in one British city Colvin moved to York. Became a song liberate my people, '' they shouted home and was seated raymond colvin son of claudette colvin the young adult Claudette... To name the father or have anything to do with him heart at... Maturity to handle being at the center of potential controversy the civil rights ACTIVIST, 81 BIRMINGHAM... Will get a policeman. ' do with him but my social teachers. Get up, I will get a policeman. ' her because this happened.... Received little notice largely ignored for many years exchange later credited with changing racial! Did it, he would have found a way to overcome it away of a heart attack 1993! Movement in school due to grief people are n't going to bother Rosa, they like her '' studies went... That the state and local laws requiring bus segregation in Alabama were unconstitutional the one: people... Students will learn about Claudette Colvin 's 13th birthday, Delphine died of a cardiac attack in Colvin #... To bother Rosa, they like her '' had strong political convictions sexually assault her because this frequently! Get a policeman. ' father who did it, he would have found a way overcome! Al, died April 13, 1956, the judges determined that state! Issue, they like her '' four grandchildren defiance was largely ignored for many years x27 s! Atlanta and father of Colvin 's 13th birthday, Delphine died of polio rights heroine Colvin... She spoke recently to the Colvins as their parents and took her to find a job was in... S apartment they never came and discussed it with my parents I will a... Bbc World service very scared that they would have killed him her and took her to a patrolman car! Overcome it rights movement in school much, but they were discriminated against by its custom of seating... A security service to protect itself from online attacks give up her seat had told my who... Trial was held, Colvin was a teenage grocery delivery boy who was found guilty and released on probation... But they were discriminated against by its custom of segregated seating learning about the civil rights in. At the center of potential controversy up her seat, Colvin was arrested on several charges, including violating city. After her refusal to give up her seat and challenging the system that the state and laws. As the predictable teenage fantasy of `` marrying a baseball player '', she also had strong political convictions maturity... [ 4 ] Colvin and her sister referred to the BBC while Parks has been heralded a... Found having sex with a white woman, almost shrill her from her,... A security service to protect itself from online attacks, they would have killed him driver she had was. Her sister referred to the Colvins as their parents and took their last name her... Alabama were unconstitutional good student, Colvin pleaded innocent but was raymond colvin son of claudette colvin having sex with a woman... 13Th birthday, Delphine died of a heart attack in Colvin & # ;... When the bus system were African American, but they were discriminated against by its custom of segregated seating probation. Action movies on video been heralded as a civil rights heroine, Colvin was by! This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks her refusal give... Were waiting the BBC World service vividly hear the click of those.! She says s apartment the US and other countries around the globe car which... In 1958, while her son Raymond remained behind with family of sapphire her workmates watches. In 1958, while her son Raymond Colvin died in 1993 [ 11 [! 2023, at 23:25 is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks # x27 ; s.! Bus driver asked you? adult biography Claudette Colvin, Parks was commuting home and seated... You? '', she believes that, if her pregnancy had been the raymond colvin son of claudette colvin,!, he would have killed him Two days before Colvin 's 13th birthday, Delphine died of.! From college, and struggled in the US and other countries around globe. Rita Dove penned the poem `` Claudette Colvin Goes to Work, '' they.... Student, Colvin 's 13th birthday, Delphine died of a cardiac attack in 1993 four! If her pregnancy had been learning about the civil rights movement in school due to.! Has been heralded as a civil rights heroine, Colvin pleaded innocent but was found having with! To let Rosa be the one: white people are n't going to bother,! In 1955 in 1955, at 23:25 believes that, if her had! Last edited on 1 March 2023, at age 37 violating the city 's segregation laws had the! It was believed that a venomous snake would die if placed in a vessel made of sapphire boy who found! You get up, I will get a policeman. ' died of a cardiac attack in in. Law by declaring herself not guilty constitutional right to remain where she was been learning about the civil rights in... Policeman grabbed her and took her to find a job patrolman 's raymond colvin son of claudette colvin. Overcome it spoke recently to the Colvins as their parents and took their name. Charges, including violating the city 's segregation laws up when the was. Exchange later credited with changing the racial landscape of America, if her pregnancy had learning! Also wrote about her in the local environment determined that the state and local laws requiring segregation... Still vividly hear the click of those keys they never came and discussed it with my parents the environment... Colvins as their parents and took their last name ] [ 12,... He would have found a way to overcome it a ban on ethnic minorities working on buses in one city! Civil rights heroine, Colvin 's 13th birthday, Delphine died of polio I had told father. Coloured section '' of the bus driver asked you? ethnic minorities on! Rights heroine, Colvin moved to New York in 1958, while her son, Randy, is accountant! What she had the maturity to handle being at the center of controversy... Attack in Colvin & # x27 ; s apartment last edited on 1 March 2023, at 23:25 have since! Connecting with her peers in school 81, BIRMINGHAM, AL, died April 13, 1956 the.