The Lesser Known Story of Claudette Colvin

The whole world knows about Rosa Parks and her bold, heroic act of refusing to give up her seat to a white person on a segregated bus in 1955. She is still honored and glorified for this act all these years later, as she should be. But what if I told you that Rosa Parks wasn’t the first African American woman to do this? Claudette Colvin was arrested for not giving up her seat on a segregated bus on March 2nd, 1955– a couple of months before Rosa Parks was arrested for the same thing on December 1, 1955. 

Claudette Colvin was born September 5th, 1939 in Birmingham, Alabama. In her early life, she worked very hard in school receiving almost all A’s, and even aspired to be president one day. She was a civil rights activist/pioneer involved in The Civil Rights Movement of Alabama throughout the 1950s. 

On March 2nd, 1955, she was riding on a segregated bus on the way home from school and was ordered by the bus driver to give up her seat to a white passenger. She refused, telling the bus driver that she had paid her fare and it was her constitutional right to sit there. She was arrested and charged with violating the city’s segregation laws among other charges. In court, she pled not guilty but the court ruled against her and sentenced her. Colvin sat in a jail cell for several hours until her pastor bailed her out. She returned home to her family and couldn’t sleep that night for fear of white retaliation. She said even the short time she spent in the cell was terrifying because “…you just didn’t know what white people might do at the time.” In an interview with Newsweek shortly after her arrest, she said, “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.” Even after receiving a short sentence, Colvin received terrible backlash that followed her around after the case. Society saw her as a troublemaker which led to her having to drop out of college and experiencing difficulty finding a job. 

So why is her story lesser known than Rosa Parks’? The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) did ponder using Colvin’s story to challenge and protest segregation laws but ultimately decided not to for two reasons; one, she was fifteen years old, and two, she was pregnant. The NAACP didn’t want to promote a teen mother who wasn’t married because they believed it would draw negative attention in the event of a public court battle. So, they decided to go public with Parks’ story a few months later– a married, older woman. 

Though she’s not the one we learn about in school, Colvin’s action played an important role in bus segregation laws being declared unconstitutional in 1956. Rosa Parks is more glorified for refusing to give up her seat because the NAACP pegged her as a more socially acceptable woman to publicize. A poet named Rita Dove tried to change that when she wrote the poem “Claudette Colvin Goes To Work,” which was later made into a song. Writer Philip Hoose also tried to gear more attention to Colvin’s story in a biography titled, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice. 

Even though Colvin’s story is not as well known, she placed a brick amongst black people to have the courage to do things just as boldly. Colvin’s attorney in a Newsweek interview said that he was “…not sure that we would have been able to mount the support for Mrs. Parks [if Colvin had not done what she did].” In March of 2024, Kris 6 News wrote that Hollywood started filming a movie about her story that would highlight her actions and bring more awareness to her story. Claudette Colvin, now 85 years old, is a retired nurse aide and lives a quiet life in South Texas. We owe it to her for changing the course of history and inspiring other black activists.

Thank you, Claudette Colvin, for your actions, and Happy Black History Month!