CLAUDETTE COLVIN
26min | English | 8 May 2019
Ms. Colvin is best known for being the first Montgomery, Alabama resident to challenge the city's bus segregation law, resulting in her arrest in March 1955. Here, Ms. Colvin discusses her personal and family background, what led her to refuse to give up her seat to a white passenger and her resulting arrest, the consequences of her decision to join the lawsuit challenging the bus segregation law, her experience working with Fred Gray, the attorney who represented the plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle (1956), retaliation from whites and the impact this moment had on her life.
An interview with Claudette Colvin for the Julian Bond Oral History Project, sponsored by the School of Public Affairs at American University. Conducted by American University student Rachel Windsor in Washington, D.C. on April 15th, 2019. The project documents the professional rise of Julian Bond from his early years in the Atlanta student movement, his work as a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and his rise to national prominence. On occasion, this project will feature interviews conducted by American University students with activists from this era who will tell their own stories about their involvement in the civil rights movement.
Project Director: Gregg Ivers, Professor of Government, American University.
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