Claudette Colvin spearheaded the Civil Rights Movement in the United States with her arrest on March 2, 1955. She protested the segregation of buses in Montgomery, Alabama. This led to the Supreme Court ruling that ended bus segregation in Alabama. Claudette Colvin’s young age and big personality kept the NAACP from turning her into the symbol that Rosa Parks became.
Young Life
Claudette Colvin was born on September 5, 1939 in Montgomery, Alabama. Her adoptive parents C. P. Colvin, a lawn mower, and Mary Anne Colvin, a maid, lived in an impoverished black neighborhood. In Twice Toward Justice, Phillip Hoose’s biography of Claudette Colvin, she recounts a time at four years old when she spoke to a couple of white boys in a retail store with her mother. The boys asked to compare hands. Her mother saw her about to touch hands and she slapped her in the face and told her she could not touch them.
Protest and Arrest
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[[[Fueled with the knowledge of the current civil rights movement, Claudette Colvin felt compelled to draw attention to her case.]]] Local community leaders determined it would be better to wait. Rosa Parks was famously arrested on December 1, 1955, for refusing to move and she became the NAACP’s face of the civil rights movement. A few key reasons exist for why the NAACP chose Rosa Parks over Claudette Colvin. Colvin’s young age of 15 made her seem more immaturely defiant to the public eye. Colvin’s family came from a very poor background and Parks fell into the middle class. Colvin’s skin was much darker than Parks. Rosa Parks already held a key position of respect with African-American politicians. But most importantly, Colvin became pregnant several months after her arrest by a much older man. [[[[The NAACP did not feel an unmarried pregnant teenager could positively represent their cause.]]]]
The Case of Browder v.