Claudette Colvin is an activist who was the first to resist bus segregation in the 1960s nine months before Rosa Park did the same.
While Claudette is still alive, the Civil Rights activist is hailed for fighting for the rights of the Black community.
Her movement made her name rise to a great height of acknowledgment. With a rise in popularity, she also wrote a book titled, Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice, so Claudette probably accumulated decent net worth through her writing and her work.
Claudette Colvin Bio: Facts, Siblings
Claudette Colvin was born on 5 September 1939 in Montgomery, Alabama. Her biological parents were C.P. Austin and Mary Jane Gadson-Austin. Later, she got adopted by her aunt and uncle who worked as domestic laborers.
Facts reveal that Claudette grew up in a poor black neighborhood with her seven siblings; she was the oldest of the eight sisters.
Claudette attended the segregated Brooker T. Washington High School in Alabama for her education. Although she couldn’t finish her high school, Claudette actively learned about the Civil Rights Movement and was also a member of the NAACP Youth Council during her time there. The bright and intelligent girl aspired to be President one day.
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From a young age, her rebellious nature was apparent, but she was also a bright, intelligent, and curious girl. So, not surprisingly, Claudette began noticing some overt discrimination against the Black community and that their rights were not valued.
Claudette Colvin rises to fame through her Civil Rights Movement (Photo: teenvogue.com)
She used to take the bus to school as her parents couldn’t afford to buy her a car. One day on the bus, the driver commanded Claudette and other black women to move to the back. While the other women moved, Claudette stayed put.
Claudette got arrested at the age of 15 by the police as she refused to give up her place for a white passenger on a bus. Claudette became one of the five plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle to testify before the three-judge panel in the United States District Court on 1 February 1956.
After four months, on 13 June 1956, the judges determined that the state and local laws requiring bus segregation in Alabama were unconstitutional.
The case later went to the United States Supreme Court and on 17 December 1956, Claudette testified as a witness. Three days after the ruling, the Supreme Court issued an order to end bus segregation to Montgomery and the state of Alabama.
This high court hearing for months finally ended the Montgomery Bus Boycott permanently.
Claudette Colvin Children With Husband?
After fighting for the Black rights at such a young age, the black community started to hail her as a pioneer in the African-American civil rights movement. But when she discovered that she was pregnant, her community stopped cheering her name as they were very conservative.
They believed that an unmarried pregnant woman would not be an icon, so for many years, she didn’t get the recognition she deserved. She was also expelled from the school as her pregnancy grew more noticeable over time.
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However, in 1956 she gave birth to her son Raymond. After the arrest, she faced difficulties in finding a job, so she moved in with her sister in New York in 1958.
There, she found a career as a nurse’s aide at Manhattan nursing home. She gave birth to her second son, Randy in the same year.
But in 1993, her older son Raymond passed away at the age of 37 due to a heart attack. Claudette opened up that he fell victim to drugs and alcohol addiction, which led to his death.
According to a Facebook post by Zeta Nu Zetas on 19 February 2015, her younger son Randy lived with his wife and five children in Atlanta.
Claudette is a mother to a son and grandmother to her grandchildren, but she is not a wife to a husband. Though she is not married to anyone, the civil rights activist doesn’t fail to balance her personal and professional life.
