Photo credit: Laura Sharman
Still making history
Badass Determined Woman Claudette Colvin shows us we’re never too young or too old to make history. In Montgomery, Alabama, the birthplace of the civil rights movement, Colvin filed for an expungement Tuesday to formally clear her name.
Colvin is the 15-year-old who made a stand for equality 9 months before Rosa Parks, on March 2, 1955, when she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger.
Ms. Colvin spoke at Tuesday’s press conference saying she should not have been arrested, that she was not sitting in the white section. She said that “Back then the bus driver had the right to ask you to give up your seat.”
Photo credit: Montgomery Advertiser, March 18, 1955
Ms. Colvin said because of the way her teachers taught her, her mindset that day was on freedom. “I was glued to my seat,” she previously told Newsweek, saying it felt like Soujourner Truth was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman on the other saying, ‘Sit down, girl!’
Young Colvin was handcuffed and arrested and then bailed out by her minister, who told her she had brought the revolution to Montgomery, as her actions helped bring rise to the Montgomery bus boycott.
Support from community
On Tuesday, 82-year-old Claudette Colvin was honored by the support of her Montgomery community, who came to watch her on this historic day. As her car pulled up, crowds were singing, “Thank you, thank you Claudette”. The leaders of the press conference also had many words of gratitude for Colvin. State Representative Merika Coleman spoke about Ms. Colvin’s bravery:
“I’m filled with hope, I’m filled with courage, because she gives that to me, because she sat so I could stand, she sat so we could stand.”
– State Representative Merika Coleman
Photo credit: AL.com
How about an apology?
State Representative Coleman says not only should we expunge Ms. Colvin’s record, but that we should also tell her we’re sorry from the State of Alabama for what she’s been put through.
Mayor Reed spoke about the important message we’re sending, and that “gestures do matter, recognition matters. It’s important to thank those who sacrifice for us to be where we are.”
Remembering those who sacrificed
It is important to recognize that there are many more people with stories like this, and, sadly, we may never know all the details of our own history. It’s very important to ask questions and talk today about the history that has not been given priority in our textbooks.
King Hill neighborhood mural
An effort was made to honor Ms. Colvin and beautify and enhance the area she lived in. Artists like Kevin King came together to create a mural of Colvin in the King Hill neighborhood, dedicated in January of 2021.
Ms. Colvin’s own street Dixie Drive was renamed in her honor in 2010 with talk of opening a community museum in her childhood home.
The Claudette Colvin mural is located in the King Hill community in Montgomery, Alabama.
Photo credit Mickey Welsh
Necessary change
What Ms. Colvin ultimately accomplished is bring us necessary change, and her sacrifice and steadfastness teaches us to be strong and hold on to what we know is right.
Colvin’s 1955 lawyer Fred Gray (pictured beside her in red tie) spoke saying, ” We’re gonna have to take this momentum that we have here today and do like what we did during the bus boycott and the civil rights movement to go on and finish that record.”
‘Having my records expunged will mean something to my grandchildren and great -grandchildren. And … for other Black children. Ms. Colvin told her audience, “It is not over, we still have to continue to fight for freedom and our rights.”
The District Attorney Daryl Bailey hopes to have “all traces of criminality expunged, stricken from her record as if it never existed so that Ms. Colvin can be recognized solely as a hero for justice, civil rights, and humanity.”
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