Black History Month One-On-One: Civil Rights Activist Claudette Colvin
Anchored by 1010 WINS' Larry Mullins
Produced for 1010 WINS by Sharon Barnes-Waters
The story of Claudette Colvin has largely gone unnoticed by many, but it was her act of civil disobedience at the age of 15 that lead to the desegregation of the buses in Montgomery, Alabama and eventually throughout the United States.
More: Larry's Blog: Claudette Colvin | Black History Month Photo Gallery
Nine months before Rosa Parks did the same thing in 1955, a teenage Colvin refused to give up her seat to a white woman on the same bus system. She told the driver she had paid her fare and it was her constitutional right.
"I could not move because history had me glued to the seat," she told 1010 WINS' Larry Mullins. "It felt like Sojourner Truth's hands were pushing me down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman's hands were pushing me down on the other shoulder."
Colvin was arrested and her case, known as Browder v. Gayle, went through the local courts, then to the Supreme Court, which ordered Montgomery and the state of Alabama to end bus segregation permanently.
Colvin moved to New York in 1958 and now lives in the Bronx.
To learn more about Colvin's life, check out "Twice Toward Justice" by Phillip Hoose.