No Easy Ride: a protester who inspired Rosa Parks

Emma Thomason, Staff Writer
February 28, 2020

Resistance on a Bus

On December 1st, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks was jailed for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white male, just because of the color of her skin. After a long day of work, Rosa Parks, a forty-two year old woman, was on her way home when this white man demanded that she move, initiating this unforgettable act of protest. Unfortunately, people have the misconception that she was the first black person to be imprisoned for this type of resistance, but that is not true. There was a fifteen year old black girl who found herself in a similar situation, just nine months before Rosa Parks was put in jail (History.com).

The Truth

In March of 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks defied segregation laws by refusing to give up her seat, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin did the exact same thing. Claudette Colvin’s refusal to give up her seat on the bus inspired many important events. She was the real catalyst who motivated Rosa Parks to refuse to give up her seat. This in turn sparked the bus boycott, a revolution that changed the course of African American history (Janell Ross).

She Did What?

Fifteen year old Claudette Colvin did what no African American had ever dared to do. After being let out early from school, Claudette and her friends boarded a bus. After all the seats had been filled and Claudette and her friends were seated, a white person boarded the bus and walked up to Claudette and her friends. This person demanded they leave; she presumed her superiority simply based on the color of her skin and the misguided traditions inherent to the Southern way of life in the fifties. Claudette’s friends moved immediately, but Colvin refused. The Police were called to the scene, and a few moments later, Claudette Colvin was under arrest; the claim was that she defied the Jim Crow Laws when she was just standing up for herself.

Claudette Colvin was the first African American to refuse to give up her seat to a white person. However, because she was only fifteen, she was considered way too young to be the face of anti-bus segregation by black leaders (Taylor-Dior Rumble). There were other reasons that leaders of the Civil Rights movement did not choose Colvin and her case as the focal point for protests, but that is for another story.