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Claudette Colvin: The First to Refuse Moving Seats on a Segregated Bus

  • Writer: guidetopw
    guidetopw
  • Jun 28, 2020
  • 5 min read

Updated: Jun 28, 2020

Rosa Parks is the most known for protesting Civil Rights and segregation by refusing to move seats to the “black’s only” section. However, there was actually someone who did the same thing 9 months before her. Claudette Colvin was the first girl to protest segregation and civil rights by refusing to move seats in a segregated bus. This act of protest is most known to be done by Rosa Parks, but here is Claudette’s story.


  • Her childhood and aspirations as a high schooler

  • The refusal to move seats, and what ensued after

  • Her activist career after the bus protest, and why she isn’t as well known as Rosa Parks

  • Other accomplishments and goals


Her childhood and aspirations as a high schooler


Claudette Colvin was born on September 5th, 1939 in Montgomery, Alabama. She was born in one of the poorer neighborhoods in Montgomery, but this didn’t stop her from dreaming big and being ambitious. She was a good student in school and was inspired by the many things she learned. She had dreams to become president one day and worked hard in school towards her dream. She studied hard and focused on earning good grades in school. She had dreams of becoming president, or a lawyer and fight for civil rights. She was often inspired by the various lessons she learned in school such as about Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad, and the fight to abolish slavery. Many of these lessons had seemed to resonate with her with the situation that she was brought up in, specifically segregation.


The refusal to move seats, and what ensued after


During a week of these lessons, she was said to be thinking about the great accomplishments her ancestors were able to make in order to gain rights, and abolish slavery. While sitting on a bus, a white woman asked Colvin to move seats, but Colvin refused. She reportedly “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.” *1 Eventually the bus driver intervened and asked Colvin to move, but she continued to refuse moving. The bus driver then decided to drive until he stopped in front of a police car and called the police to take control over the situation. After things escalated, two police officers forcefully removed her off of the bus and arrested her, even putting her in handcuffs. After she was arrested she was taken to an adult jail as a minor; she was placed in a jail cell with one toilet and a cot. She wasn’t able to make any phone calls before she was put into jail and reportedly felt extremely scared, as the police officers repeatedly called her derogatory names, the n-word, ridiculed her, etc. The two other students who were on the bus with Colvin went to her mother’s house to tell her what happened. Her mother and her local reverend traveled to the jail in order to bail her out. Once she had reached her home, the word had spread of her arrest and her act of protest. However, though she was bailed out, she feared her life and was afraid of lynching. Because word had spread of her defiance, she and her family also were afraid of the KKK coming to their home, so her father stayed up all night facing the front door with his shotgun. Everyone in her town provided safety to each other and would warn each other in case of any threats or dangers. After she got home, there were also many protests that occurred after her arrest and even Martin Luther King went outside the Montgomery Jail in order to protest.


Her activist career after the bus protest, and why she isn’t as well known as Rosa Parks


After protests died down, Claudette continued to be involved in the civil rights movement. She was in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and was always learning about what she could do to help. However, you may be wondering why she was not as famous as Rosa Parks for doing the same thing. Well, a surprising fact is that she and Rosa Parks actually knew each other. Rosa Parks was in the NAACP and she and Colvin knew each other through the organization. Rosa Parks’ act of protest was inspired by Claudette as well. But the reason why Parks is more known is because of a few reasons, firstly many people were still in the ‘white’ state of mind and thought that Colvin’s complexion was too dark in comparison to Rosa Parks. Many people also thought that she was too young to represent the movement and compared to a middle aged woman, she might have been seen as unreliable as a teenager. Another reason might have been that she had gotten pregnant at a very young age. These factors played large parts in why she is not as well known and why Rosa Parks was favored to be used as the face of the Civil Rights movement. Rosa Parks was a middle aged woman, with a job, and seemed to be a better fit to represent the movement.


Other accomplishments and goals


After she became older, she and the three other women on the bus, Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, and Mary Louise Smith, all served as plaintiffs on the Browder vs Gayle court case. They challenged the Montgomery segregated public transport in the case. They started at the district level but eventually made it to the supreme court which resulted in a large change in the segregation laws as it turned out in their favor. It was said that segregation was a violation of the 14th amendment in which they said that to “deny and deprive plaintiffs and other (African American) citizens similarly situated of the equal protection of the laws and due process of law secured by the Fourteenth Amendment”. *2 This ruling was based on the preceding case Brown vs Board of Education. This was ruled in December of 1956, which also led to the end of the boycott on public transport in Montgomery.


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