Claudette Colvin: The First Black Woman

If I was given the opportunity to become someone for a brief period of time, it would be Claudette Colvin. At just fifteen years old, she became the first black woman to refuse to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama. She was and still is an intelligent, courageous, and caring woman that stood for what she knew and believed was right. She never gave up and held high expectations for herself, despite her circumstances.
Claudette Colvin was born September 5, 1939 in Montgomery, Alabama. She was raised and adopted by C.P. Colvin and Mary Anne Colvin. She grew up in a poverty-stricken neighborhood, which was a sanctuary for drug-addicts. Even though her surroundings were poor, her aspirations were high. She studied hard at school, achieved mostly As in all of her courses and even

hoped to become President of the United States one day. She also educated herself about the Civil Rights Movement and became a member of the NAACP Youth Council. Considering her hardships and impoverished environment, she continued to strive for greatness and success. Knowing how she stayed motivated and set these amazing goals for herself, in spite of discrimination against herself and people of her color is beyond me. She showed true grit and determination throughout her difficulties.
On March 2, 1955, Colvin got on the Capital Heights bus with three other students.

She obeyed the law that the first ten seats in the front of the bus were for whites. As the bus proceeded on downtown, more whites got on. “Eventually the bus got full capacity, and a young white lady was standing near the four of us. She was expecting me to get up,” she says. The bus driver, Robert W. Cleere demanded Colvin and the three other black students to give up their seats. While the three students complied, Colvin refused, saying, “It’s my constitutional right to sit here as much as that lady. I paid my fare, it’s my constitutional right.” She remembered feeling like “Sojourner Truth was pushing down one shoulder and Harriet Tubman was pushing down on the other—saying, ‘Sit down girl!’ I was glued to my seat.” Policemen literally dragged her off of the bus because of her persistence in refusing to get up. At fifteen years old, she was arrested and charged with misconduct, resisting arrest, and violating segregation laws. At such a young age, I do not know how she had the bravery to stand up for herself while knowing the consequences of talking back to a white person during this time

period.
After spending three hours in jail, her mother and minister came to bail her out. Her dad was worried about the consequences from the KKK. “He sat in the corner, with his shotgun fully loaded, all night,” she recalls. The NAACP considered using Colvin as their test case to confront the segregation laws. After long discussion, they decided against it because of her young age and becoming pregnant. Later on, Colvin along with four other women were called as plaintiffs in the court case Browder v. Gale, which finally concluded that bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama was unconstitutional. The feeling of knowing that she did something that catapulted the end of segregation on buses must have been extraordinary.
Although Claudette Colvin is not celebrated as much as Rosa Parks is, she sparked the fire that removed segregation on buses in Montgomery, Alabama. Her independence and strength is what inspires young women, like me, to become half the person that she is one day.