And that’s just me.”. The 1854 arrest of schoolteacher Elizabeth Jennings — who was defended in court by future U.S. President Chester A. Arthur — led to the desegregation of NYC streetcar service. https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/the-activist-before-rosa-parks Her son vows 'never again', Man fed injured fish. Historian David Garrow, a biographer of Dr. King, adds that oversimplifying the story to only include Parks sends "the implicit message that everything in history happens only because of unusually great individuals." They've become unlikely friends, How he became a bodybuilder with one arm and no legs, She became the first female mechanic in this country, This Toronto Raptors fan never misses a game. Right about now you might be thinking, “Um, I think you mean Rosa Parks.” But actually, Park’s arrest came nine months later — … This is the famous act that started the Montgomery Bus Boycott and ignited the Civil Rights Movement. She invited Colvin to NAACP youth group meetings, and thought they might be able to raise money for the cause by having the teen speak around town. And over this past Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, the Equal Justice Initiative opened the Legacy Pavilion, featuring local figures in the civil rights movement and even a photo of Colvin next to a photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. If she had not done what she did, I am not sure that we would have been able to mount the support for Mrs. Laws had changed in key ways too. When asked how that felt, Colvin told TIME, “I finally got some recognition after all these years. Colvin says she didn’t think about how dangerous her decision could have been until after she had already made her stand. By signing up you are agreeing to our, Breonna Taylor Grand Jury Records Will Offer Rare Insight, Where China Stands on the U.S. Presidential Election, Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know now on politics, health and more, © 2020 TIME USA, LLC. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling against segregation in Brown v. Board of Education “opens the door for potentially successful legal challenges against other forms of segregation,” says Jeanne Theoharis, author of The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks. She knew Parks, often spending the night at her house after weekly NAACP youth meetings, which she had gotten involved with after her arrest. “I’m hard-pressed to find what’s different between Elizabeth Jennings being arrested and Rosa Parks being arrested, except for the 100 year gap,” says Blair L.M. Colvin and Smith started to look like suitable plaintiffs when “no man is willing to be on the case,” says Theoharis. Smith’s case was not widely publicized at the time. I just didn’t feel like it was right.”. "Being dragged off that bus was worth it just to see Barack Obama become president, because so many others gave their lives and didn't get to see it, and I thank God for letting me see it. Today, Colvin is 69 years old and is a retired nursing-home nurse living in New York City—her bold actions largely forgotten and long ago eclipsed by Parks. By the time local NAACP Secretary Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat, on Dec. 1, 1955, boycotting the buses had come to be seen by some as the only option remaining: “If we do not do something to stop these arrests, they will continue,” the flier announcing the boycott proclaimed. “I’m just not the type of person to go around bragging about what I have done,” she says; both would rather brag about their grandchildren. "Rosa Parks has to scoot over a little bit."
", You have 4 free articles remaining this month, Sign-up to our daily newsletter for more articles like this + access to 5 extra articles. However, when Colvin became pregnant, E.D. "The people in Montgomery, they didn't try to find me. By 1955, however, “the world was in a different place,” Kelley adds. But leaders were unsure about Colvin. Under the city’s Jim Crow-era segregation laws, black passengers didn’t technically have to get up for white passengers if there were no other free seats, though many did so to avoid the potentially dangerous consequences. "It just so happens they picked me at the wrong time—it was Negro History Month, and I was filled up like a computer," Colvin tells NEWSWEEK, "I felt like Sojourner Truth was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman was pushing down on the other—saying, 'Sit down girl!' There had already been talk in Montgomery’s black community of boycotting the buses over segregation, but the idea started to be taken more seriously after the arrest of someone so young. Step Into History: Learn how to experience the 1963 March on Washington in virtual reality. E. D. Nixon, an influential black leader heavily involved with the case, said, 'I had to be sure that I had somebody I could win with'. The continuum of resistance went on after Colvin’s arrest, most notably with bus riders Aurelia S. Browder, 37, arrested on April 29, and Mary Louise Smith, 18, arrested on Oct. 21. Unlike Colvin, Parks was a refined and grandmotherly seamstress completely above reproach—she was the face that leaders had been searching for.
I could have been raped.”. I was glued to my seat.". I love everybody. Representing the women were Fred D. Gray and Charles D. Langford, who had consulted with future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Robert L. Carter, who argued Brown v. Board of Education before the U.S. Supreme Court. Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com. We’re not together. Mary Louise Smith-Ware, a plaintiff in the Browder vs. Gayle case that led to the desegregation of buses in Montgomery, stands beside the Rosa Parks statue after its unveiling event in downtown Montgomery, Ala., on Dec. 1, 2019, the anniversary of Parks being arrested for not giving up her seat on a city bus. Rosa Parks Predecessors Recall Their History-Making Acts of Resistance. Colvin was convicted nonetheless, and the news tore across Montgomery. Colvin was charged with disturbing the peace, violating the segregation law and assaulting a police officer — but she was only convicted of assaulting a police officer, seeming to close the door on a potential appeal that would have challenged segregation. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Browder v. Gayle decision in November, and denied re-hearings in Dec. 17.
Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, the desegregation of NYC streetcar service. Claudette Colvin was 15 years old when she was heading home from school on a Montgomery city bus and was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger.
A new book by Phillip Hoose, "Claudette Colvin, Twice Toward Justice," describes how the girl stood her ground, yelling, "It's my constitutional right" as the cops pulled her off the bus, threw her into the back of a cop car, and handcuffed her through the window.
", You have 4 free articles remaining this month, Sign-up to our daily newsletter for more articles like this + access to 5 extra articles. However, when Colvin became pregnant, E.D. "The people in Montgomery, they didn't try to find me. By 1955, however, “the world was in a different place,” Kelley adds. But leaders were unsure about Colvin. Under the city’s Jim Crow-era segregation laws, black passengers didn’t technically have to get up for white passengers if there were no other free seats, though many did so to avoid the potentially dangerous consequences. "It just so happens they picked me at the wrong time—it was Negro History Month, and I was filled up like a computer," Colvin tells NEWSWEEK, "I felt like Sojourner Truth was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman was pushing down on the other—saying, 'Sit down girl!' There had already been talk in Montgomery’s black community of boycotting the buses over segregation, but the idea started to be taken more seriously after the arrest of someone so young. Step Into History: Learn how to experience the 1963 March on Washington in virtual reality. E. D. Nixon, an influential black leader heavily involved with the case, said, 'I had to be sure that I had somebody I could win with'. The continuum of resistance went on after Colvin’s arrest, most notably with bus riders Aurelia S. Browder, 37, arrested on April 29, and Mary Louise Smith, 18, arrested on Oct. 21. Unlike Colvin, Parks was a refined and grandmotherly seamstress completely above reproach—she was the face that leaders had been searching for.
I could have been raped.”. I was glued to my seat.". I love everybody. Representing the women were Fred D. Gray and Charles D. Langford, who had consulted with future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Robert L. Carter, who argued Brown v. Board of Education before the U.S. Supreme Court. Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com. We’re not together. Mary Louise Smith-Ware, a plaintiff in the Browder vs. Gayle case that led to the desegregation of buses in Montgomery, stands beside the Rosa Parks statue after its unveiling event in downtown Montgomery, Ala., on Dec. 1, 2019, the anniversary of Parks being arrested for not giving up her seat on a city bus. Rosa Parks Predecessors Recall Their History-Making Acts of Resistance. Colvin was convicted nonetheless, and the news tore across Montgomery. Colvin was charged with disturbing the peace, violating the segregation law and assaulting a police officer — but she was only convicted of assaulting a police officer, seeming to close the door on a potential appeal that would have challenged segregation. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Browder v. Gayle decision in November, and denied re-hearings in Dec. 17.
Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, the desegregation of NYC streetcar service. Claudette Colvin was 15 years old when she was heading home from school on a Montgomery city bus and was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger.
A new book by Phillip Hoose, "Claudette Colvin, Twice Toward Justice," describes how the girl stood her ground, yelling, "It's my constitutional right" as the cops pulled her off the bus, threw her into the back of a cop car, and handcuffed her through the window.