Claudette Colvin: Meet the Teenager who Inspired Rosa Parks

On March 2nd, 1955, a 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Right about now you might be thinking, “Um, I think you mean Rosa Parks.” But actually, Park’s arrest came nine months later — on December 1st of that year. It was actually Claudette Colvin who first took the bus-related stand, inspiring Parks and Montgomery Bus Boycott that followed.

Imagine it: a fifteen year old girl inspiring an entire wave of the civil rights movement. Smarties, we’re here to tell you it can happen and Colvin here is proof of it.

While there are several instances prior to Colvin’s of African Americans refusing to give up their seats leading up to her arrest, Colvin was actually the first person to want to retain a lawyer and fight back. A bold move for a teenaged, unwed mother at the time, but really: would you expect anything less from a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Youth Council?

In the subsequent lawsuit that followed — Browder v. Gayle, the case that found bus segregation unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment — Colvin was actually the star witness, ultimately leading to the Supreme Court’s affirmation of the legality issues of “separate but equal.”

So why, then, when time came for the Montgomery Bus Boycott to find its face, was Colvin nowhere to be seen? Though inspired by Colvin they went with Rosa Parks because, as Colvin explained in an interview with NPR, “[t]hey thought I would be too militant for them. They wanted someone mild and genteel like Rosa.”

Well we’re all about your tenacity, Claudette. Your staunch character was instrumental in bringing equality to African Americans, making you one of the original Smart Girls. And for that we thank you.

Who are some unsung heroes that you look up to, Smarties? Any lesser known stories about female leaders that inspire you? We want to hear ’em in the comments!

Photo Credit: Alabama Media Group