NHEG-January-February2022

NHEG WRITERS ARTICLES
CLAUDETTE COLVIN
Written By: Barbara Bullen
When racism rears its ugly head against you
should you take action to stop the pain you feel
of being discriminated against
the laws that aren’t right
the laws to protect only whites!
When one hears about the Civil Rights era, it immediately brings to mind activists; Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Rosa Parks and organizations like the NAACP and the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference. There are also many other leaders and activists that are in history books throughout
the United States and the World. In 1955, a teenager stood up for her rights and was arrested even before the
infamous Rosa Parks stand. Rosa Parks, who worked for the
NAACP as the secretary for the Montgomery Chapter, was arrested for not getting up from her seat for a
White man on a bus. Claudette Colvin, a Black teenager attended Booker T. Washington High School, only 15
at the time, didn’t want her constitutional rights violated even though segregation on public transit was the
law. Whites were to be seated in the front of the bus, and if there were no seats left for
Whites than Blacks had to get up from their seats at the back for Whites to be seated.
Colvin lived in troubled times; times when segregation divided the nation so that Blacks took a back seat to
the lives of Whites. Segregation was the norm and the daily lives of all who traveled the public transit until
Colvin took a stand.
In Montgomery, Alabama, Colvin is said to be a pioneer, one who led the way and helped end
segregation on public transit. When she was forcibly removed from the bus and arrested on March 2,
1955, her attorney, Fred Gray, along with four other plaintiffs filed a federal case, in Federal District Court,
February 1, 1956, Browder vs. Gayle, to challenge segregation on public transit. A three-judge panel found
the law unconstitutional which was appealed to the Supreme Court where it upheld the state court ruling,
finding the law unconstitutional.
When one hears about the Civil Rights era, it immediately brings to mind activists; Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Rosa Parks and organizations like the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. There are
also many other leaders and activists that are in history books throughout the United States and the World.
In 1955, a teenager stood up for her rights and was arrested even before the infamous Rosa Parks stand.
Rosa Parks, who worked for the NAACP as the secretary for the Montgomery Chapter, was arrested for not
getting up from her seat for a White man on a bus. Claudette Colvin, a Black teenager attended Booker T.
Washington High School, only 15 at the time, didn’t want her constitutional rights violated even though
segregation on public transit was the law. Whites were to be seated in the front of the bus, and if there were
no seats left for Whites than Blacks had to get up from their seats at the back for Whites to be seated.
January - February 2022
Colvin lived in troubled times; times when segregation divided the nation so that Blacks took a back seat to the lives of Whites.
Segregation was the norm and the daily lives of all who traveled the public transit until Colvin took a stand.
In Montgomery, Alabama, Colvin is said to be a pioneer, one who led the way and helped end segregation on public transit.
When she was forcibly removed from the bus and arrested on March 2, 1955, her attorney, Fred Gray, along with four other
plaintiffs filed a federal case, in Federal District Court, February 1, 1956, Browder vs. Gayle, to challenge segregation on public
transit. A three-judge panel found the law unconstitutional which was appealed to the Supreme Court where it upheld the
state court ruling, finding the law unconstitutional.
“Browder v. Gayle 142 F. Supp. 707 (M.D. Ala. 1956) Decided Jun 5, 1956 709 *709 RIVES, Circuit Judge. Statement of the Case. The
purpose of this action is to test the constitutionality of both the statutes of the State of Alabama and the ordinances of the
City of Montgomery which require the segregation of the white and colored races on the motor buses of the Montgomery City
Lines, Inc., *711 a common carrier of passengers in said City and its police jurisdiction.
1 2 711 1 Title 48, § 301(31a, b, c), Code of Alabama of 1940, as amended, which provide: “§301(31a).
Separate accommodations for white and colored races. — All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor
transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows for the white and colored
races, but such accommodations for the races shall be equal. All motor transportation companies or operators of vehicles
carrying passengers for hire in this state, whether intrastate or interstate passengers, shall at all times provide equal but
separate accommodations on each vehicle for the white and colored races. The conductor or agent of the motor transportation
company in charge of any vehicle is authorize and required to assign each passenger to the division of the vehicle designated
for the race to which the passenger belongs; and, if the passenger refuses to occupy the division to which he is assigned,
the conductor or agent may refuse to carry the passenger on the vehicle; and, for such refusal, neither the conductor or
agent of the motor transportation company nor the motor transportation company shall be liable in damages. Any motor
transportation company or person violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon
conviction, shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars for each offense; and each day’s violation of this section shall
constitute a separate offense. The provisions of this section shall be administered and enforced by the Alabama public service
commission in the manner in which provisions of the Alabama Motor Carrier Act of 1939 are administered and enforced. (1945,
p. 731, appvd. July 6, 1945.)”
For the complete case see below:
https://www.freedomforuminstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Browder-v.-Gayle.pdf
According to Jonathan Gold in his article, “The Browder in Browder v. Gayle. On April 29, 1955, Aurelia Browder, like so many
other black residents of Montgomery, was mistreated on a city bus. According to her testimony in the civil case, she was
forced by the bus driver “to get up and stand to let a white man and a white lady sit down.” Three other plaintiffs, Mary Louise
Smith, Claudette Colvin and Susie McDonald, had reported similar mistreatment. The cumulative effect of these “demeaning,
wretched, intolerable impositions and conditions,” as boycott organizer Jo Ann Robinson referred to them, inspired
Montgomery’s black community to begin developing plans for a boycott that eventually began after the arrest of Rosa Park.
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