- In September 2016, the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, unveiled a permanent Rosa Parks exhibit.
No such permanent exhibit was made for Claudette Colvin, who was not present at the formal Grand Opening Dedication Ceremony for the Museum held on 24 September 2016. She had not even been invited.
For many, her story is still not yet known. Her undeniable contribution to the American Civil Rights Movement - not only in action, but also in principle and philosophy - is still not yet given the memory, honor, and respect which it deserves. - Colvin never married but gave birth to two sons, the first was Raymond Colvin (b. December 1955, died 1993).
- In July 2014, Claudette Colvin's story was documented in a television episode of Drunk History (Montgomery, AL (Season 2, Episode 1)). The young Ms. Colvin was portrayed by actress Mariah Iman Wilson.
- In 1955, at age 15, Claudette Colvin was the first African-American person arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated public bus to a white passenger.
- The historic court case to which Claudette Colvin became one of five plaintiffs, Browder v. Gayle, 142 F. Supp. 707 (1956), was the case heard by the Supreme Court, putting an end to legally enforced segregation on public buses in the American South. The remaining plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle were Aurelia S. Browder, Susie McDonald, Mary Louise Smith, and Jeanetta Reese. The plaintiffs' lawyer was Fred D. Gray, an African-American attorney who was also born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama, who also later represented Rosa Parks.
Browder v. Gayle, in which Rosa Parks was not a plaintiff, however, was the legal case whose verdict historically integrated public buses in Montgomery County, Alabama.
As an attorney for the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), Fred D. Gray had also represented Ms. Colvin in the initial case of her arrest in the Montgomery Circuit Court. - Sadly, following her arrest and the rendering of the historic Supreme Court Decision in Browder v. Gayle, Claudette Colvin was branded a "troublemaker" by many members of her community in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1958, after ceasing her university studies, she decided to leave Montgomery, Alabama for New York City.
One year prior, in 1957, Rosa Parks had already chosen to leave Montgomery, Alabama for Detroit, Michigan. - She and her sister Delphine were raised by their great-aunt and great-uncle, taking their last name.
- Graduated from Booker T. Washington High School.
- Sister Delphine died from polio in 1952.
- Left Alabama and became a nurse's aide at a Catholic hospital in New York City.
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