Claudette Colvin goes to School
5 pennies tied up
In her little pocket handkerchief
To buy a lollipop, two cookies
And Mary Jane candy.
In the General Store
She was happy skipping
Until the sandy haired
Blue eyed White boy screeched:
“Let me see your hands.”
“Let me see your hands.”
They held up their palms
And touched each other
Playfully.
Instantly her mother
Gave her a stiff backhand.
The white boy’s mother
Nodded and said
“Oh Yeah, that’s right!”
Forgetting about the candy
She cried and cried.
When she got home
Her father explained:
“My little girl,
You’re not allowed
To touch anything white…”
About ten years later
March 2nd, 1955 –
Claudette Colvin attends
Booker T. Washington High.
With her natural kinked hair
Plaited into braids. This
15-year-old rallied against
The hot comb and pomade.
It just happened
To be Negro History month
And just another day
Under Jim Crow laws.
A great day at school
Now it’s time to go home –
Little did she know
History would be made.
Her three companions
Decide to walk it into town,
But suddenly a bus appeared
So, they jumped on that.
Everything was cool,
Spare seats for the negroes
Until a white lady boarded
And was standing at the front.
Robert W. Cleere
The seething bus driver
Commanded the black girls
To move to the back.
Her friends got up,
But she didn’t budge
With pregnant Ruth Hamilton
Who’d just got on the bus.
“You gotta get up,”
The passengers complained,
“Get up cos it’s the law.”
She yelled: “I’ve paid my fare
It’s my constitutional right!”
Her classmate Margaret Johnson
Joined in the furore.
“Oh, she don’t have to do nothing
But be black and die!”
This day Claudette Colvin’s name
Etched into history.
The bus pulled up at
The mini depot in Court Square,
Nine months before
The world heard of Rosa Parks.
On the same bus system
In Montgomery, Alabama,
A traffic cop boarded,
Scolding her with his bark.
“Get to the back.”
“Get to the back.”
She yelled: “I’ve paid my fare
It’s my constitutional right!”
He sheepishly turned
To the driver and made it clear:
“I don’t have jurisdiction here!”
Mr Cleere is frantic
And calling Police.
Two cop cars rushed
And cut off the bus – oh my!
Two policemen board and scream:
“Get up out your seat!”
She yelled: “I’ve paid my fare
It’s my constitutional right!”
She could not move for
History glued her to the seat.
Sojourner Truth on the left,
Harriet Tubman on the right.
It was her time to say NO
She was ready for the fight.
Police vigorously grabbed her,
Schoolbooks flew from her lap.
They dragged her off the bus
And put her in handcuffs.
And for 3 long hours
She was terrified in the jail.
“You just don’t know what these
White people might do at the time.”
Her parents and church minister
Turned up and paid bail.
Then whisked her home where
Her father stayed up all night.
Expecting retaliation
With his shotgun on the porch.
They had to stay alert,
Negroes had been lynched
For lesser than that.
She was charged with
Violating segregation laws.
Assault and Battery
And disorderly conduct.
The Court found her guilty
And put her on probation.
Branded a troublemaker
In public opinion’s court.
She dropped out of college
And couldn’t find a job.
And soon after that
She became pregnant.
Unlike Rosa Parks,
Her skin texture was dark.
You could not associate her
With the middle class.
She didn’t have good hair,
And was quite a feisty girl,
Not a good face for
The civil rights movement.
But an inspiration when
Black ministers announced,
The Montgomery bus boycott
On December the 4th.
Miss Claudette Colvin
One of four plaintiffs.
She wholeheartedly testified
Before 3 district judges.
They determined
This young black girl
With stature and courage,
Was indeed right to evoke
Her Constitutional right.
On June 5, 1956
Bus segregation in Alabama
Deemed unconstitutional,
And was set in law.
Then a few months later
On November the 13th,
The US Supreme Court upheld
The districts court’s decision.
And one month later
They declined to reconsider,
And ordered the state of Alabama
To end bus segregation
Permanently
The date: December 20, 1956
We don’t hear about about
Claudette Colvin in the history books
(but we should).
With such a reputation
She had to move New York.
And for many years
She served other people
In her nursing role –
In 2021 her juvenile record
was expunged –
she said –
“Mine was the first cry for justice, and a loud one.”
She once wrote in class:
I’m going to be President.
The same little girl
With 5 pennies tied up.
Explore Poem by Rita Dove: Claudette Colvin Goes to Work
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