"CLAUDETTE COLVIN, THE ORIGINAL ROSA PARKS"

                                     In Jamaica we say:"Time longer than rope."     

                "CLAUDETTE COLVIN, THE ORIGINAL ROSA PARKS"

Nine months before Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person,  a 15 year old girl was also arrested after she refused to give up her seat on a bus. The incident occurred on March 2, 1955, in the same place - Montgomery, Alabama, USA. The 15 year old girl was, like Rosa Parks, an African-American. He name : Claudette Colvin. She refused to give up the seat and move to the back of the bus.

Sixty-six years later, according to an article by CNN December 16, 2021, the court records about her case have been "sealed, destroyed and expunged, following a judge's ruling."

Rosa Parks' action received far more attention than Claudette Colvin's during the Civil Rights Movement although it happened some time after. Many more people have heard of, read, or know about the Rosa Parks incident. Why was that? Parks' image was more "acceptable to a White community. Parks was older, married and lighter skinned." 

Colvin, on the other hand, was younger - a 15 year-old. She became  pregnant by an older married man in 1955.

But on that day she refused to give up her seat on the bus."It's my constitutional right," she shouted defiantly.

"I could not move, history had me glued to the seat." she said in an interview on MSNBC,in late December 2016. "I had paid my fare," she added. Nevertheless she was dragged off the bus by police officers. She was taken to jail.

After she was arrested "she found herself shunned by parts of her community," an NPR article states. "She experienced various difficulties and became pregnant. Civil rights leaders felt she was an inappropriate symbol for a test case."

Colvin went on to join the plaintiffs in a 1956 case that went to the Supreme Court. It ordered officials in Alabama to end bus segregation.

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Many years passed. On October 28, 2021, the Smithsonian magazine carried an article titled "Civil Rights Pioneer Claudette Colvin is fighting to clear her record."  Written by correspondent Brigit Katz, it said the Civil Rights pioneer pushed back against segregation nine months before Rosa Parkes landmark protest but has long been overlooked.

"Colvin's pioneering contributions to the fight for civil rights have long been overlooked," Katz wrote. 

Claudette Colvin wanted to have her name cleared.

Then it happened! An Alabama judge, Calvin Williams" who was not born when 15-year-old Claudette was arrested, expunged her arrest record, thus clearing her name.

An article  in Black Enterprise by Derek Major on December 17, 2021 described how the judge spoke graciously to her: "I want to thank you for your courage, your courageous act, I want to. on behalf of myself, and all of the judges in Montgomery, offer my apology for an injustice that was perpetrated upon you."

"When she did this in 1955 there were no African American judges in Montgomery, Alabama and now I am one of several." Williams told CBS. "So the remarkable thing is that I sit in a position to sit and do something judicious in a judicious way, to correct an injustice that was perpetrated against her so long ago that never should have happened."

Claudette Colvin stood up for what was right. Calvin Williams  was a beneficiary and years later he could correct the wrong that was done to her so long ago. "It never should have happened," he said.

"Thanks to you," Judge Williams said to Ms. Colvin, "black children will be treated fairly."

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