Claudette Colvin was born on September 5, 1939, in Montgomery, Alabama. Claudette Colvin was born Claudette Austin in Montgomery, Alabama, on September 5, 1939, to Mary Jane Gadson and C. P. Austin. Claudette Colvin won a National Book Award and was dubbed a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2009. . On March 2, 1955, Claudette Colvin boarded a bus home from school. [43] 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 on her behalf and on behalf of a community of affected people". clearInterval(fbl_interval); Claudette Colvin was an adopted child of C.P.Colvin, a lawn mower, and Mary Anne, a maid. Because of her protest on the bus, Colvin was arrested when she was just 15 years old. Colvins arrest record and adjudication of delinquency were finally expunged. Colvin is a civil rights activist and pioneer of the 1950s U.S. civil rights movement. Throughout Claudette's lifetime there was a numerous amount of struggles she had to face. As of 2022, she is 82 years old. On June 13, 1956, the judges determined that the state and local laws requiring bus segregation in Alabama were unconstitutional. She went to Booker T Washington high school. Colvin did so, but received a slap and a severe reprimand from her mother, saying that she was not allowed to touch white people. Colvin is nothing short of a civil rights hero and will always be remembered for her bravery and contribution to the cause. Claudette gave herself over for the bigger picture: a unified, segregation-free America. "[4][5] Colvin's case was dropped by civil rights campaigners because Colvin was unmarried and pregnant during the proceedings. Last Name Colvin #2. Colvin, a studious child, was determined to get the best education possible, become a lawyer, and fight for civil rights. She had two sisters, Delphine and Velma. First Name Claudette #1. [37], "All we want is the truth, why does history fail to get it right?" She was arrested and became one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle,. among numerous honors. Civil Rights Leader #10. Claudette Colvin is an important civil rights activist who made a notable impact on the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Claudette Colvin was born on September 5, 1939. [49], The Little-Known Heroes: Claudette Colvin, a children's picture book by Kaushay and Spencer Ford, was published in 2021. They read the 14th Amendment. Colvin was born September 5,. When Austin abandoned the family, Gadson was unable to financially support her children. [29], Colvin gave birth to a son, Raymond, in March 1956. Biography, Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. She is currently 77 years old. Due to this, her actions were broadly overlooked when compared to contemporary activists like Rosa Parks. In 2017, the Montgomery Council passed a resolution for a proclamation honoring Colvin. The average black person made half the average white person makes for the same job. [16] On March 2, 1955, she was returning home from school. On June 13, 1956, the judges determined that the state and local laws requiring bus segregation in Alabama were unconstitutional. At 82, her arrest is expunged", "Claudette Colvin's juvenile record has been expunged, 66 years after she was arrested for refusing to give her bus seat to a White person", "John McCutcheon sings Rita Dove's 'Claudette Colvin', Drunk History' Montgomery, AL (TV Episode 2014), "The Newsroom - Will McAvoy On Historical Hypotheticals", "Report: Biopic about civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin in the works", The Other Rosa Parks (Colvin interview with, Vanessa de la Torre, "In The Shadow of Rosa Parks: 'Unsung Hero' of Civil Rights Movement Speaks Out", "An asterisk, not a star, of black history", Let us Look at Jim Crow for the Criminal he is - Rosa Parks' bus stand and the long history of bus resistance, John F. Kennedy's speech to the nation on Civil Rights, Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States, Chicago Freedom Movement/Chicago open housing movement, Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, Council for United Civil Rights Leadership, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed On Freedom)", List of lynching victims in the United States, Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument, Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument, Historically black colleges and universities, Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC), Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL), Black players in professional American football, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Claudette_Colvin&oldid=1131856864, Activists for African-American civil rights, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from July 2019, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Colvin was born September 5, 1939, and was adopted by C. P. Colvin and Mary Anne Colvin. 
Mayor Todd Strange presented the proclamation and, when speaking of Colvin, said, "She was an early foot soldier in our civil rights, and we did not want this opportunity to go by without declaring March 2 as Claudette Colvin Day to thank her for her leadership in the modern day civil rights movement." Colvin is honored by a statue in Alabama that was unveiled in 2019. [9] When they took Claudette in, the Colvins lived in Pine Level, a small country town in Montgomery County, the same town where Rosa Parks grew up. In fact, she attended segregated schoolsand rode segregated busesin Montgomery, Alabama. Her son, Raymond, was born in March 1956.