A WEB SERIES
CLAUDETTE COLVIN
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CIVIL RIGHTS PIONEER
"I kept thinking, Why don't the adult around here just say something? Say it so they know we don't accept segregation? I knew then and I know now that, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can't sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, 'This is not right.' And I did."
Born
Sep. 5
1939
Age
70
Portrayed By
Wande
Isola
Episode
18
At the age of 15, Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in segregated Montgomery, Alabama nine months prior to Rosa Parks. As a high schooler, she was a member of the NAACP Youth Council. Colvin was among the five plaintiffs originally included in the federal court case Browder v. Gayle filed by civil rights attorney Fred Gray. Montgomery's Black leaders did not publicize Colvin's pioneering effort because she was a teenager who was reportedly pregnant by a married man. Words like "feisty", "mouthy", and "emotional" were used to describe her.
Claudette Colvin today
Colvin on why she refused to give up her seat