On March 2nd, 1955, fifteen year old Claudette Colvin sat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The door creaked open and a white woman stepped on and walked over to Colvin. The woman demanded she give up her seat and move to the back, but Colvin refused. Despite knowing that this meant arrest, she stood her ground. Colvin was then taken to an adult jail despite her young age for several hours before her trial, where she was found guilty on all charges in juvenile court. This had significant personal and social repercussions on her life.
Nearly a century later, her name remains largely unrecognized. Most people know Rosa Parks as the mother of the civil rights movement and the first to stand up against segregation on buses. However, Colvin’s act of resistance took place nine months before Parks’ and is still unacknowledged and unrecognized.
Claudette Colvin was born on September 5th, 1939 in Alabama. Shortly after her birth, her father left the family. Colvin and her sister Delphine were taken in by their aunt and uncle in Pine Level. The girls were raised on a farm until Colvin was eight years old, and her family moved to Montgomery. There, she attended a school for African American children called Booker T. Washington. Colvin was able to learn about and discuss the issues she faced with segregation and discrimination in her daily life. She enjoyed the stories of figures such as Harriet Tubman and was greatly inspired by similar strong, African American heroes.
The day she stood up to the white woman on the bus, she was faced with three charges— disturbing the peace, violating segregation laws, and assaulting a police officer. Although the first two charges were dropped eventually, it was only recently when she filed to have the last one dropped. It had been on her juvenile record for decades. “I’m not doing it for me… But I wanted my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren to understand that their grandmother stood up for something very important, and that it changed our lives a lot, changed attitudes” (NYT). Her revolutionary act was punished and still has not been appealed.
Colvin’s story serves as a prime example of how stigma can affect every aspect of one’s life and highlights the importance of destigmatization. At the time of her arrest, she was in high school, pregnant, and of course, a woman. Several aspects of her identity led the leaders of the civil rights movement to believe she was unfit to be recognized, despite her pioneering act. They thought Rosa Parks, who was already older, more mature, and respected in the community, would be better as the face of the movement. As well as that, Parks had lighter skin than Colvin, which made some people involved believe the public would be more sympathetic towards the former. Colvin was never recognized due to the negative effect her image may have had on the movement.
However, her act of defiance still played a crucial role in the forthcoming Montgomery bus boycott. The boycott was a grassroots movement in which black people in Montgomery stopped taking city buses to fight the segregation laws that required they sit at the back to save the front seats for white people. This movement lasted for over a year and greatly helped lead the Supreme Court to their ruling that decided bus segregation was unconstitutional. It was also hugely important in the general advancement of equality for all in the US. However, it was one individual action that inspired a chain reaction that led to these important changes in America’s civil rights legislation.
Rosa Parks’ resistance was the primary act that sparked the boycott, which then brought Martin Luther King Jr. to prominence, and over time the movement gained more traction and attention until the government finally made change. Yet Colvin, a major contributor who performed the same brave act as Parks months earlier, was overlooked. Whether or not aspects of her identity were stigmatized, her initial involvement was undoubtedly a huge inspiration and carried power in its own way. Every single action– big or small, no matter who it comes from– has an effect on the world and deserves to be recognized.
Colvin’s story raises the question of whether it was better that Parks was the face of the movement and if people really would have sympathized with her less because of these stigmatized characteristics. Would the movement have been less successful if it had been her situation that represented it? Ideally, her age, gender, and pregnancy should not have mattered because none of those things made her less than human. However, unfortunately, there are many people who believe certain qualities make a person less deserving of being treated with respect. There may have been benefits to considering all possible results at the inception of this movement to make it as effective as possible. However, Colvin should have been recognized in some way despite all this because no matter what her situation at the time was, her actions had an influence on these later actors and she deserves to be appreciated.
To this day, there are so many important figures who are not discussed enough or taken seriously due to certain characteristics they possess that make them a minority. For example, Greta Thunberg, a climate change activist who is dismissed by some due to her age. Another example is Tarana Burke, who founded the #MeToo movement but is not often talked about because of her race.
However, Colvin’s main concern was not to be noticed. All she wanted was for her last charge of assaulting a police officer to be dropped in order to clear her juvenile record. Colvin wanted to let future generations know that what she did was a good thing and that you should never be afraid to stand up for yourself.
There are many unsung heroes today who are not recognized due to factors of their identity they cannot control. Widespread education about these people would no doubt lead to a more inclusive, well-rounded understanding of history for all and deliver another aspect of equality into the world.
By: Yunha Hwang
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