This was partially a product of the outward face the NAACP was trying to broadcast and partially a product of the women fearing losing their jobs, which were often in the public school system. [15], In 1955, Colvin was a student at the segregated Booker T. Washington High School in the city. }; var fbl_interval = window.setInterval(function(){ Although Colvins actions predated the more famous actions of Rosa Parks by nine months, she is much less well known. She knew that in 1955 she would be arrested for protesting segregation laws but she did anyway and helped pave the way for the overturning of segregation laws in Alabama. 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. [34], Colvin has often said she is not angry that she did not get more recognition; rather, she is disappointed. Jo Ann Robinson organized a city bus boycott by African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 that changed the course of civil rights in America. Claudette was a dreamer - she wanted to be President someday! She was born on September 5, 1939. In the 2010s, Larkin arranged for a street to be named after Colvin. AboutPressCopyrightContact. Claudette Colvin was an important figure in the civil rights movement. Claudette Colvin was born on September, 1939, in Montgomery, Alabama. In 2019 a statue ofRosa Parkswas unveiled in Montgomery, Alabama, and four granite markers were also unveiled near the statue on the same day to honor four plaintiffs inBrowder v. Gayle, including Colvin. Delphine, the younger sister, died from polio two days before her 13th birthday. He lives in . try{ [4], "The bus was getting crowded, and I remember the bus driver looking through the rearview mirror asking her [Colvin] to get up for the white woman, which she didn't," said Annie Larkins Price, a classmate of Colvin. clearInterval(fbl_interval); On the hot sunny day in Montgomery Alabama, on September 5th, 1939, a baby girl named Claudette Colvin was born to Mary Jane Gadson and C.P. Months before Rosa Parks, Colvin stood up against segregation in Alabama in 1955, when she was only 15 years old. The driver looked at the women in his mirror. She retired in 2004. The leaders in the Civil Rights Movement tried to keep up appearances and make the . Seeing this, her mother slapped her in the face and told her that she was not allowed to touch white boys. . Three days later, the Supreme Court affirmed the order to Montgomery and the state of Alabama to end bus segregation the Montgomery bus boycott was then called off. "There was no assault", Price said. Tue, 09.05.1939 Claudette Colvin, Activist born Claudette Colvin *Claudette Colvin was born this date in 1939. Rosa Parks was a civil rights activist who refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. [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. Colvin and Mary Anne Colvin. Claudette Colvin, a nurse's aide and Civil Rights Movement activist, was born on September 5, 1939, in Birmingham, Alabama. [39] Later, Rev. Fifteen years old, the tiny Colvin attended Booker T. Washington High School. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); In a house of empty rooms, I thought I heard a door close down the long hall. Jeanetta Reese later resigned from the case. They asked her to touch hands in order to compare their colors. 20072023 Blackpast.org. Austin and Mary Jane Gadson. I paid my fare, it's my constitutional right." [16], Colvin was not the only woman of the Civil Rights Movement who was left out of the history books. [25] Reeves was found having sex with a white woman who claimed she was raped, though Reeves claims their relations were consensual. The court sentenced her to indefinite probation and declared her to be a ward of the state.