Claudette Colvin, formerly Claudette Austin, was born on September 5th, 1939 in Montgomery, Alabama, and remains alive today. On March 2nd, 1955, Colvin was arrested as a teenager for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white woman who was left standing.
She attended Booker T. Washington High School, and after a long day of classes, she boarded a bus home from school. The bus was filling up and Colvin, along with many of her other classmates, were told to stand up from their row to make seats available to the white passengers. While three of her peers did move, Claudette refused emphatically, claiming, “We’d been studying the Constitution…I knew I got rights.” When asked by the bus driver “Why [she was] still sittin’ there?” in an interview, Colvin recalls responding with, “I felt like Sojourner Truth was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman was pushing down on the other—saying, ‘Sit down girl!’ I was glued to my seat.”
She was forcefully and violently dragged off of the bus by police officers shortly after while repeating, “It’s my constitutional right!” Colvin went to trial in May of 1955 for the violation of three laws. The judge dropped two of the charges of disrupting the peace and breaking Montgomery’s segregation laws but found her guilty on the third violation of assaulting the police officers that detained her. Since the judge dismissed two out of the three charges where only the assault charge remained, it was unrealistic for Colvin to appeal her case because it would not directly challenge the segregation laws.
The Black communities in Montgomery were outraged following Colvin’s arrest, and there was even talk about a bus boycott, but it was never properly organized by the public as many members thought that she was not considered the “proper symbol” for a city-wide movement. She was 15, feisty, impulsive, and unmarried, and there were even rumors that she was pregnant at the time she was arrested, which made her unfit to be the face of the boycott. These myths were further debunked and it came to light that she became pregnant during the summer following her trial, but remained a way to silence her bravery and efforts as the community felt they could never have a pregnant teenager represent them.
While many people are unaware of Claudette Colvin’s impact on the civil rights movement, it is believed that her unrest played a major part in the support of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott roughly nine months after, in her refusal to give her bus seat up to a white man. Parks, a married 42-year-old woman with a consistent job, was seen as a more responsible leader for the movement and became known for such.
For the last 60 years, Colvin has had an assault charge attached to her identity. In October 2021, at 82 years old, she is happily residing in Texas. Before moving from Alabama to Texas, however, Colvin filed an expungement request as it would have been her last opportunity to do so in the state. She claimed that, “having [her] records expunged would mean something to [her] grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And it will mean something for other Black children.” In December of 2021, a federal judge granted her expungement request, wiping Colvin’s record clean.
Although Colvin technically has a clean record and is no longer considered a juvenile delinquent, she still remains the same strong-willed, independent, and noteworthy woman who refused to give up her seat on the bus in 1955. Her story is empowering, and influential and deserves the same respect and recognition that other vital civil rights activists receive.