“I knew then and I know now, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it.” – Claudette Colvin
Point 1
Born on September 5, 1939, in Montgomery, Alabama.
Point 2
On March 2, 1955, at the age of 15, she refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. She was arrested and became one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, which ruled that Montgomery’s segregated bus system was unconstitutional.
Point 3
She was branded a troublemaker within her community in Alabama after her initial arrest and conviction. Also, she was abandoned by civil rights leaders when she became pregnant at 16.
Point 4
“My mother told me to be quiet about what I did,” Ms. Colvin recalled. “She told me: ‘Let Rosa be the one. White people aren’t going to bother Rosa — her skin is lighter than yours and they like her.’ ”
Point 5
Colvin left Montgomery for New York in 1958, got a job as a nurse’s aide in a nursing home in Manhattan, where she worked for 35 years, retiring in 2004.
Works Cited
Claudette Colvin – Medical Professional, Activist, Civil Rights Activist …
Claudette Colvin Explains Her Role in the Civil Rights Movement …