- Kimberley Guillemet
Claudette Colvin was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on September 5, 1939. Colvin and her younger sister were raised by their great aunt and uncle, Mary Anne and Q. P. Colvin in King Hill, a poor Black neighborhood in Montgomery. Colvin attended the segregated Booker T. Washington High School, where she was a good student and a member of the NAACP Youth Council.
On March 2, 1955, 15 year-old Colvin was riding on the public bus on her way home after school. She was seated at the front of the “colored section” of the bus which began on the row behind the “white section.” The bus operated under the rule that if the bus became so crowded that all the "white seats" in the front of the bus were filled such that white people were standing, any African Americans seated nearest to the “white section” were expected to give up their seats to allow the white passengers to sit down.
If there were no free seats in the “colored section,” African Americans were expected to stand in the aisle.
When a young white woman got on the bus that afternoon and was left standing in the front, the bus driver commanded Colvin and three other young Black women in her row to move to the back. Even though only one seat was needed, Blacks could not sit on the same row as whites so all four young ladies were ordered to move. Colvin’s three companions moved; Colvin did not.
Eventually, the bus driver summoned the police. Upon seeing Colvin, one of the officers responded, "That's nothing new . . . I've had trouble with that 'thing' before." The officers then ordered Colvin to move, but 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, later recalling, "History kept me stuck to my seat. I felt the hand of Harriet Tubman pushing down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth pushing down on the other—saying, 'Sit down girl!' I was glued to my seat."
The police officers forcibly handcuffed Colvin, arrested her, and dragged her from the bus. Colvin later said, "Mine was the first cry for justice, and a loud one."
The police officers who took her to the station made sexual comments about her body and took turns guessing her bra size throughout the ride. One of the police officers sat in the backseat of the patrol car with her as they rode to the station causing her to fear that he would sexually assault her. After being held in jail for hours, she was bailed out by her pastor, who told her that she had “brought the revolution to Montgomery.”
Colvin was charged with disturbing the peace, violating the segregation laws, and battering and assaulting a police officer. She was tried in juvenile court, convicted on all three charges and sentenced to “indefinite probation.” When Colvin's case was appealed to the Montgomery Circuit Court on May 6, 1955, the charges of disturbing the peace and violating the segregation laws were dropped, although her conviction for assaulting a police officer was upheld.
This event took place nine months before the NAACP secretary Rosa Parks was arrested for the same offense. Colvin did not receive the same attention as Parks because as Colvin later stated, she did not have “good hair”, she was not fair-skinned, she was a teenager, and she got pregnant. The leaders in the Civil Rights Movement were very mindful of the public perception of protesters and tried to ensure that only the most sympathetic and “appealing” protesters would receive media attention. Civil rights leaders felt that Colvin’s status as an unwed teenage mother made her an inappropriate symbol for a test case. Colvin became one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, which ruled that Montgomery’s segregated bus system was unconstitutional.
Colvin had difficulty finding and keeping work following her participation in the Browder v. Gayle case and was branded a “troublemaker” by many in her community. This led to Colvin and her son Raymond leaving Montgomery to move to New York, where she became a nurse's aide, retiring after 35 years of service.
In 2021, Colvin applied to have her juvenile record expunged. The District Attorney supported her motion, stating, "[h]er actions back in March of 1955 were conscientious, not criminal; inspired, not illegal; they should have led to praise and not prosecution.” The judge ordered that the juvenile record be expunged and destroyed in December 2021, stating that Colvin's refusal had "been recognized as a courageous act.”
To learn more about Ms. Colvin’s tremendous life and legacy, please visit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudette_Colvin, https://www.biography.com/activist/claudette-colvin, and https://www.npr.org/2009/03/15/101719889/before-rosa-parks-there-was-claudette-colvin. To view footage of Ms. Colvin, please visit:
- Kimberley Guillemet
- Ruth Soukup
As we begin Women’s History Month, I am astounded when I reflect on the scores of unsung heroines who have changed our world. Women, who were all too often relegated to the fringes of the annals of American history until the latter part of the 20th century, have consistently been at the epicenter of change. Our World Changer of the Month for March, Claudette Colvin, is no exception. In 1955 at the age of 15, Colvin refused to give up her seat for a young white female passenger on a public bus. She effectively, in the words of her pastor, “brought the revolution to Montgomery.”
However, for decades, Ms. Colvin was relegated to the fringes of history by men at the helm of the civil rights movement who preferred to utilize the image of Rosa Parks for various reasons, including their determination that her class, marital status, skin color, hair texture and other characteristics made her a more desirable test case. Parks was the type of lady who complemented the image of the well-dressed alpha male icons that dominated the civil rights movement headlines at that time.
But Claudette Colvin, the first person in Alabama to refuse to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, was not a man; nor was she a middle class, professional, married woman. And by her own account, her decision to resist compliance with a racist law, was motivated by two civil rights icons who had walked the earth long before her, neither of whom were men; nor were they women from a preferred social stratum. Colvin later recalled in an interview that she felt the spirits of Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman telling her to remain in her seat and compelling her to resist.
We can learn a great deal from Claudette Colvin, a young Black woman without resources or connections, but with the special ingredient that mattered most: courage.
In the words of author and speaker Ruth Soukup, “Courage doesn't mean we are never afraid, courage is simply daring to take action, despite our fear.” Ms. Colvin was scared to remain in her seat, but she did it anyway.
Is there something that you feel you need to do? Something that is scary and that will force you to traverse uncharted territory? Something that you’ve been putting off because you’ve convinced yourself that someone like you can’t achieve something like that? If so, please remember Claudette Colvin, the scared, 15-year-old girl from the wrong side of the tracks who started a revolution by doing it anyway.
- Kimberley Guillemet
- Kimberley Baker Guillemet
Navigating uncharted territory can be scary. However, someone has to be the first.
In 1864, Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first African-American female medical doctor in the United States. In addition to navigating the academic rigor that is endemic to medical school, Dr. Crumpler had to do so as the first and only woman of color during a time of intense racism and sexism. After retiring, Dr. Crumpler wrote and published what is believed to be the first medical text written by an African-American author.
I can only imagine what Dr. Crumpler had to face to accomplish her goals. They were certainly uncharted territory for a woman and a person of color during her time. Though we are living in a time and space different from Dr. Crumpler, we still must navigate hurdles, both internal and external, when we set out to achieve a new goal.
How do we push past the very real external obstacles of exclusion, sexism, racism, classism and elitism? And, how do we ignore all of the internal insecurities that come up, such as:
What if I’m rejected?
What if I’m not good enough?
What if I don’t pass muster?
What if people think I’m crazy?
How do you get past all of that and just try? Well, the answer is simple: take the first step. Everything and everyone had to start somewhere. Every trailblazer had to set off on their journey with no roadmap directing their way. They did not have an instruction manual telling them which steps to take.
As this month is Black History Month, we can look to African-American trailblazers who demonstrated courage as they took their first steps into the unknown. There was no roadmap for George Washington Carver to use to discover over 300 uses for the peanut. There was no financial advisor directing Madam C.J. Walker on how to invest and grow her money in order to become the first Black millionaire. There was no roadmap for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to guide him as he strategized and planned a civil rights movement. There was no instruction manual for former President Barack Obama to follow in order to ensure that he would be elected the first African-American President of the United States.
Similarly, there will not be a roadmap or instruction manual for whatever uncharted territory we will have to traverse on the way to accomplishing our novel goals. We will rarely know where the steps in our journey will take us or what our final destination will be, but we have to be brave enough to take the first step.
Is there something in your heart that you have been wanting to do? A goal you want to achieve? I challenge you to take the first step into your unknown, and then, after that, take the next.*
Scary? Yes!
Worth it? Always.
You might just end up changing the world.
* This statement is not intended to incite behavior that is illegal, illicit or unauthorized. All minors should seek the advice and permission of their parents and/or guardians before engaging in any new activity.
