It's time for the Way Black History Fact and Today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by Major Threads for innovative fashionable sportswear Checkmajors Threads dot com and today I'm sharing with you from biography dot com. Claudette Colvin is a civil rights activist who before Rosa Parks, refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. She was arrested and became one of four plaintiffs and Browder versus Gail, which ruled that montgomery segregated bus system was unconstitutional.
Colvin later moved to New York City and worked as a nurse's aide. She retired in two thousand and four. Colvin was born on September fifth, nineteen thirty nine, in Montgomery, Alabama. Growing up in one of Montgomery's poorer neighborhoods, Colvin studied hard in school, shared mostly a's in her classes, and aspired to become president. One day, on March second, nineteen fifty five, Colvin was riding home on a city bus after school when a bus driver told her to give
up her seat to a white passenger. She refused, saying, quote, it's my constitutional right to sit here as much as that lady. I'd paid my fare. It's my constitutional right. Colvin felt compelled to stand her ground. Quote I felt like Sojourner Truth was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman was pushing down on the other, saying sit down, girl. I was glued to my seat, she later told Newsweek.
After her refusal to give up her seed, Colvin was arrested on several charges, including violating the city segregation laws. For several hours, she sat in jail completely terrified. Quote. I was really afraid because you just didn't know what white people might do at that time. Colvin later said. After her minister paid her bail, she went home, where she and her family stayed up all night out of concern for possible retaliation and court. Colvin opposed the segregation
law by declaring herself not guilty. The court, however, ruled against her and put her on probation. Despite the light sentence, Calvin could not escape the court of public opinion. The once quiet student was branded a troublemaker by some, and she had to drop out of college. Her reputation also made it impossible for her to find a job. The NAACP briefly considered using Colvin's case to challenge the segregation laws,
but they decided against it because of her age. She also had become pregnant, and they thought an unwed mother would attract too much negative attention in a public legal battle. Her son, Raymond, was born in March nineteen fifty six. Despite her personal challenges, she became one of the four plaintiffs in the Browder versus Gail case, along with Aurelia I believe s Browder, Susie McDonald, and Mary Louise Smith. Jeanetta Reese, who was initially named a plaintiff in the case,
withdrew early due to outside pressure. The decision in the nineteen fifty six case, which had been filed by Fred Gray and Charles D. Langford on behalf of the aforementioned African American women, ruled that Montgomery's segregated bus system was un constitutional. Two years later, Colvin moved to New York City, where she had her second son, Randy, and worked as a nurse's aide at a Manhattan nursing home again. She
retired in two thousand and four. So just a neat little fun fact for folks that were unaware that Rosa Parks wasn't the first one to refuse to give up her bus seat. That was something that a lot of folks had gone through. She was just the most visible one. You know, a lot of people it's hard to imagine
what it's like to live in a segregated society. But you know, I want to remind folks that there are a lot of people who are still alive right now, people who are affected by the most recent election that come from a time in this country's history where they saw how a significant number of the population acted and behaved toward black people. But for a lot of those folks, it feels like okay, politics as usual, and that is heartbreaking. So, yeah, there's a way black hass striefect