Claudette Colvin Quotes

Claudette Colvin is a pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in segregated Montgomery, Alabama, nine months prior to Rosa Parks' famous arrest for the same offense.

Colvin was among the four plaintiffs originally included in the federal court case filed by civil rights attorney Fred Gray on February 1, 1956, as Browder v. Gayle, and she testified before the three-judge panel that heard the case in the United States District Court. On June 13, 1956, the judges determined that the state and local laws requiring bus segregation in Alabama were unconstitutional. The case went to the United States Supreme Court, which upheld their ruling on December 17, 1956. Colvin was the last witness to testify. Three days later, the Supreme Court issued an order to Montgomery and the state of Alabama to end bus segregation, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott was called off.

For many years, Montgomery's black leaders did not publicize Colvin's pioneering effort because she was a teenager who was reportedly made pregnant by a married man. However, she actually did not become pregnant until later.Colvin said, "Young people think Rosa Parks just sat down on a bus and ended segregation, but that wasn't the case at all."

✵ 5. September 1939

Claudette Colvin: 3 quotes 3 likes

Famous Claudette Colvin Quotes

“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.”

Claudette Colvin

Claudette Colvin http://www.biography.com/people/claudette-colvin-11378 at biography.com, accessed 2 Nov 2013.

“It's my constitutional right to sit here as much as that lady. I paid my fare, it's my constitutional right.”

Claudette Colvin

Claudette Colvin http://www.biography.com/people/claudette-colvin-11378 at biography.com, accessed 2 Nov 2013; Colvin said as she was getting arrested by the two police officers on the bus.