Claudette Colvin was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a bus. Now she's fighting to get her record expunged

 

(CNN) Claudette Colvin, a civil rights pioneer who in March 1955, at the age of 15, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a White person on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, is seeking to get her conviction expunged.

"I guess you can say that now, I'm no longer a juvenile delinquent," Colvin said at a news conference Tuesday, after filing a motion asking the juvenile courts to seal, destroy and expunge her records.
"Under Jim Crow the bus driver had the authority to ask you to give up your seat to a White person and that was absolutely wrong," she added.

Colvin's legal team had said Monday it planned to file a request Tuesday with a Montgomery County court to clear her record.

Colvin, now 82, was charged with two counts of violating of the city's segregation ordinance and one felony count of assaulting a police officer. She was convicted on all counts in juvenile court, but the segregation convictions were overturned on appeal.

"There were two colored females sitting opposite two white females, that refused to move to the back with the rest of the colored," the 1955 police arrest report said. "Claudette Colvin, age 15, colored female, refused. We then informed Claudette that she was under arrest."

Colvin was placed on "Indefinite probation" for the police officer assault conviction and was never informed that her probation ended when she became of age, her attorney, Phillip Ensler, told CNN.
"So she thought she's been on probation this entire time," Ensler said.

Colvin's case came nine months before Rosa Parks made history for also refusing to give up her bus seat. However, Parks' case received more attention during the civil rights movement in part because Parks' image was more "acceptable to a White" community, Colvin told CNN earlier this year. Parks was older, married and lighter skinned, she said.

More: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/25/us/claudette-colvin-record-expungement/index.html

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