Colvin was 15 in when she refused to give up her seat to a white person on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Colvin became a plaintiff in a court case that led to the desegregation of public buses in Alabama. But for years Colvin kept a low profile and her story was not widely known. Colvin, now 85, said she wanted to collaborate with Hoose on this second book because she fears many children today have no idea what life in the segregated South, or what Black people like her had to go through.
Colvin, who lives in Texas, feels the lessons that can be learned from that time are still valid today. I was Claudette Colvin was 15 in when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white person.
Mackie had said he hopes to direct the movie, and has met with Hoose, but when the film might be shot or released has not been announced. The picture book, geared toward ages 4 to 8, was illustrated by Bea Jackson. She had been studying Black history in her segregated school, and started to think about the need for change, the need for action.
Then one day in March , while coming home from school on a city bus, a white passenger wanted her seat. Soon two police officers arrived, yanked her from her seat, arrested her, and put her in the local jail. Black leaders hired a lawyer, Fred Gray, to represent her.
Soon after that a boycott of city buses was organized. District Court challenging the constitutionality of bus segregation in Alabama, with Colvin as one of the named plaintiffs. The case went to the U. Supreme Court, which upheld a lower court ruling that bus segregation was unconstitutional. The Montgomery bus boycott, considered by many the first large-scale U. In the s, she did talk to an Alabama reporter for a story, and was contacted by other newspaper reporters later.
