Claudette Colvin in 1954 PHOTO COURTESY OF DGT

“I knew then and I know now that, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can’t sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, ‘This is not right.’” –Claudette Colvin

In Black history, the month of March, Women’s History Month, rushes in with the force of the proverbial lion. With such significant March 1 anniversaries as the1738 treaty signed by the Maroons (self-liberators from enslavement) of Jamaica with the British enslavers’ government on the island; Pennsylvania’s 1780 Abolition of slavery; the 1841 birthdate of Blanche K. Bruce, who would become the first elected Black U.S. senator to serve a full term following the Civil War; the 1896 stunning Ethiopian victory over Italian invaders at Adwa; and the 1927 birthdate of the late legendary singer, actor, and social justice activist Harry Belafonte; among other notable happenings on that date.

There may be no more appropriate way to follow that opening act of Women’s History Month 2025 than the March 2 observance of the 70th anniversary of the arrest of 15-year-old Claudette Colvin (born Claudette Austin). On her way home from high school on that date in 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Colvin was arrested for the “crime” of refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. She was dragged off the bus by two police officers, handcuffed, and charged with disorderly conduct, violating segregation laws, and, ludicrously, assaulting the officers.

Ultimately, Colvin would be setenced to indefinite probation, the first two of the charges would be dismissed on appeal, but the assault charge against the 15-year-old girl would not be expunged, despite constant efforts, until 2021.

This incident became the spark that would ignite the legendary Montogomery Bus boycott which began nine months later with the much more famous arrest for the same offense of Mrs. Rosa Parks. Parks, a seamstress who also happened to be a secretary of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was carefully selected to play the courageous role that she did on Dec. 1.

Prior to Parks arrest, Colvin’s bold action inspired another young woman in Montgomery, Mary Louise Smith, who likewise stood her ground by keeping her seat. Her arrest on Oct. 21 helped to usher in a burgeoning movement by the rise of people who had more than enough, and of youth who were not about to accept any of it.

The legendary successful boycott that would begin on Dec. 2 would also launch the public career of a charismatic young Baptist preacher newly arrived in Montgomery named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The boycott became regarded as the “official” beginning of the Civil Rights struggle in earnest.

The Price of Freedom

In the decades-long, yet revealing short period during which segregation lasted, African Americans not only resisted but turned the pathology of their adversaries into an advantage by exercising empowering intellectual freedom in underfunded Black schools, teaching younger generations about historic heroes and “sheroes,” who inspired students like Claudette Colvin.

Thus, she said after the ordeal of her arrest, “History had me glued to the seat. It felt as if Harriet Tubman’s hand was pushing me down on the one shoulder, and Sojourner Truth’s hand was pushing me down on the other. Learning about those two women gave me the courage to remain seated that day.”

The true depth of that courage would become clearer from her statement that as she sat for several hours in jail, completely terrified, “I was really afraid, because you just didn’t know what white people might do at that time."

Indeed, after her minister paid her bail, she went home where she and her family stayed up all night; fully loaded shotgun at the ready, out of concern for possible retaliation. What racists would do would become evident soon enough.

On Jan.31, Dr. King’s home would be bombed. On the following day the home of E.D. Nixon, the head of the local branch of the NAACP was also bombed, and no less than 80 leaders of the boycott were indicted on criminal charges, including Dr. King himself.

Federal Court rulings, however, would prevail, partly due to testimony by Colvin and other women who received similar treatment by police, and, more importantly the community maintained the boycott until those rulings took effect and desegregation of buses was implemented, in December 1956, more than a year after it began.

It was a resounding victory for the newborn Civil Rights movement, but not without consequences. It was only the beginning of a struggle that would last for a decade to come, mirroring the repeated pattern of short-lived African American successes followed by long periods of white backlash, as outlined by author Femi Lewis on the Truthco.com website:

Two days after the desegregation of bus seating, a shot was fired into the front door of King’s home. The following day, a group of white men assaulted an African American teenager exiting a bus. Soon after, two buses were fired at by snipers, shooting a pregnant woman in both of her legs.

By January 1957, five African American churches were bombed as was the home of Robert S. Graetz, who had sided with the IA [Montgomery Improvement Association, headed by Dr. King, which organized the boycott].

As a result of the violence, city officials suspended bus service for several weeks.

Later that year, Parks, who had launched the boycott, left the city permanently for Detroit.

Frederick Douglass bequeathed us his famous quote that the struggle for justice “may be a physical struggle… or a moral one… but it must be a struggle, because power concedes nothing without a demand.

In these times of corrupted and illegitimate power attempting to take the nation backwards, clearly even to slavery if allowed, we, like Claudette Colvin, might feel empowered by the hands of sheroes like her on our shoulders, holding us in place, and recognizing, as the bus boycott demonstrated from beginning to end, the unique courage, fearlessness, and heroism of the generations of women without whom we would not have the opportunities we have today, not even to mention life itself.