Claudette Colvin’s story has largely gone untold.
On March 2, 1955, when she was just 15 years old, Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a young white woman in Montgomery, Alabama – nine months prior to the arrest of Rosa Parks for the very same offense.
“History had me glued to the seat,” Colvin said. “It felt like Harriet Tubman’s hands were pushing me down on my shoulder on one side and Sojourner Truth hands were pushing me down on the other shoulder.”
Colvin spoke to a group packed tightly into the Peterborough Community Theater Tuesday evening who gathered to watch a documentary centered around a dark period in America’s history.
The 60-minute documentary titled “The Awakenings 1954-1956” is the first in a series of six. The series, “Eyes on the Prize,” recounts the fight to end segregation in the United States.
It retells events along the way to equality including, the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education lawsuit, the murder of 17-year-old Emmett Louis Till, and of the Montgomery bus boycott.
Famous figures emerged from the revolution whose stories are well-documented in the film. But the fight was carried out by countless other courageous individuals whose names and stories have largely been forgotten.
“There are lots of stories that were not told,” said Karla Hostetler, executive director of the Mariposa Museum & World Culture. “There were names in the film that were not mentioned.”
And Colvin’s story is one of those, Hostetler said.
On Tuesday evening, Colvin recounted her arrest, filling in historical gaps that have largely gone unnoticed over time.
When the bus driver asked her to move on that day in March, she responded, defiantly, “I paid my fare and it’s my constitutional right.”
Five stops later, police officers came onto the bus and asked her to move. Even more determined, she repeated the phrase.
“I don’t know how I got off the bus, but people say they man-handled me, and dragged me off the bus and put me in the squad car,” Colvin said. “They handcuffed me through the window and then they took me to city hall and booked me.”
She was placed in city jail and charged with several counts. All these years later, she can still vividly hear the cell key click in the lock.
“It’s a terrible feeling when you’re locked in there and you can’t get out,” she said.
Following her arrest, Colvin and four other plaintiffs challenged the incidents in Browder v. Gayle, a case that eventually overturned bus segregation laws in Montgomery.
The case was overshadowed by national recognition for Rosa Parks, who the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other black organizations made into an icon for the movement. At the time, Colvin was seen as an innapropriate face for the movement because she was too young and later became an unwed mother.
“I still get emotional when I watch this (“Eyes on the Prize” series) because I feel like I’m part of the puzzle that was left out,” Colvin said after the showing.
Colvin’s story is now the subject of a book titled “Twice Toward Justice” authored by Phillip Hoose, which holds Civil Rights’ leaders accountable for ignoring her place in history.
Even though she has been largely ignored, Colvin still knows she was an important part of history.
“When President Obama became president, I was jumping – I’m Baptist you know, and what do [Baptists] do? We shout. I was jumping up and down like a converted Baptist. I was so happy. I said, ‘Thank God I lived to see him.”
After the election, someone came up to Colvin and said “because of you there’s President Obama.”
“I’m part of that history,” Colvin said.
While there is still work to be done for equality, she said,“we did accomplish something.”
After the film and question-and-answer sessions with Colvin, Rebecca Defusco waited in line to have her copy of “Twice Towards Justice” signed.
“I’m incredibly excited that Claudette is here. It’s a pretty big deal,” Defusco said.
She said her son, who was also at the showing, is reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” in school. The screening merges nicely into the unit and “adds another layer” to her son’s studies.
“We don’t tell this story enough,” she said.
The series is presented in partnership with the Peterborough Community Theater, Mariposa Museum & World Culture and public television’s WORLD Channel.
“Eyes on the Prize” will be screening weekly at the Peterborough Community Theatre until Tuesday, Oct. 18.
Episode 2 – Tuesday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m.
Fighting Back 1957 – 1962
States’ rights, loyalists, and federal authorities collide in the 1957 battle to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School, and again in James Meredith’s 1962 challenge to segregation at the University of Mississippi.
Abby Kessler can be reached at 924-7172, ext. 234 or akessler@ledgertranscript.com.