Claudette (Austin) Colvin

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Biography

Claudette Colvin was a pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement.^[1]

Claudette Austin was born in Montgomery, Alabama in 1939. Her parents were C.P. Austin and Mary Jane Gadson. Her father abandoned the family when she was young, and her mother sent the children to live with their aunt and uncle, Mary Anne and Q. P. Colvin. Claudette and her sister adopted their aunt and uncle's last name.

What were the rules for riding the bus in 1955?

In 1955 the rule on the buses in the city of Montgomery, Alabama, was that 'coloured' passengers must sit at the back and leave the front seats to white passengers.

Claudette Austin was born to C.P. Austin and Mary Jane Gadson on September 5, 1939, in Birmingham, Alabama, but she was raised by her great-aunt and great-uncle, Mary Ann and Q.P. Colvin.

Claudette Austin Colvin was 15 years old when she was arrested for not giving up her seat for a white person to sit down. This took place close to a year before Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in 1956.

Claudette: “Everyone saw the injustice, the double standards,” she recalls. “At the time Jeremiah was on death row, Black men were saying: ‘Do not look at a white woman you see walking down the street … cross the street and pretend you have to tie your shoelaces. Do not make eye contact with white women.’” ^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudette_Colvin
2. ↑ Claudette Colvin: the woman who refused to give up her bus seat – nine months before Rosa Parks https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021 /feb/25/claudette-colvin-the-woman-who-refused-to-give-up-her-bus-seat-nine-months-before-rosa-parks

• 1940 Census: "1940 United States Federal Census"
  Year: 1940; Census Place: Birmingham, Jefferson, Alabama; Roll: m-t0627-00094; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 68-118
  Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 2442 #65397114 (accessed 24 June 2022)
  Claudette Austin (8/12), single son, in household of Jim Gibson (45) in Birmingham, Jefferson, Alabama. Born in Alabama.
• 1950 Census: "1950 United States Federal Census"
  United States of America, Bureau of the Census; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790-2007; Record Group Number: 29; Residence Date: 1950; Home in 1950: Montgomery, Montgomery, Alabama; Roll: 6214; Sheet Number: 43; Enumeration District: 70-67
  Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 62308 #98258704 (accessed 24 June 2022)
  Claudette Colvin (9) daughter in household of Quinton P Colvin (56) in Montgomery, Montgomery, Alabama, USA. Born in Alabama.

See Also:

• Claudette Colvin
• heroes.fandom.com/wiki/Claudette_Colvin Claudette Colvin Real Life Heroes
• Why Didn’t She Become Famous? Alabama's Black History: Claudette Colvin
• https://researchersgateway.com/claudette-colvin/ Claudette Colvin – Sitting down for freedom, Posted on February 2, 2021 by Galen Scott
• Claudette Colvin, by Phillip Hoose, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudette_Colvin:_Twice_Toward_Justice
• She Persisted: Claudette Colvin by Lesa Cline-Ransome (Author) Publisher: Philomel Books, Publication Date: February 2nd, 2021 https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9780593115831