Claudette Colvin, Civil Rights Heroine visits Newark 3/28/13

Claudette Colvin

HEROINE OF MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT,

in Newark NJ

Thursday, March 28, 2013

6:30 PM

Abyssinian Baptist Church

224 West Kinney Street

Newark, NJ

On Thursday, March 28th, the People’s Organization for Progress will host a special women’s history month discussion with special guest Claudette Colvin, an unsung heroine of the Montgomery Bus Boycott!
This special gathering will take place at the Abyssinian Baptist Church, 224 West Kinney Street, Newark. Doors open at 6:30pm.

While the December 1, 1955 arrest of Rosa Parks is world renown, several months earlier on March 2nd,Colvin, only a 15 year old student and member of the NAACP Youth Council in Montgomery at the time, similarly refused to give up her seat to a white woman and faced arrest.

Because her action was more spontaneous and because her personal profile was not as “reputable,” Colvin’s action did not get the attention that Parks would later. Unlike Parks, Colvin also endured a terrible beating when she was arrested. Colvin and her family were not deterred, however. Later on, lawyers on her behalf, and on behalf of three other young women, Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald and Mary Louise Smith, who also dared to faced arrest protesting Montgomery’s segregated busing, filed a case in federal court that would ultimately be the case that would be used to ban segregated busing in Alabama. The case is known as Browder v Gayle. It was on June 5, 1956 that federal judges ruled that segregated busing was unconstitutional citing the historic Brown v. Bd. of Education case of 1954. Knowing that the city and the bus company would appeal the ruling, Dr. King vowed to continue the boycott until the ruling was put into action. That would not come until December 20, 1956 when the Supreme Court upheld the earlier decision.

Ms. Colvin’s moving story was also captured in the book, Twice Towards Justice, by Phillp Hosse, a recipient of the National Book Award.“We are honored beyond words to have this brave and heroic freedom fighter in our midst,” said a humbled but impassioned Lawrence Hamm, the organization’s chairman.

“The People’s Organization for Progress will proudly aid every effort to see to it that Ms. Colvin gets the proper official recognition she is most certainly due.”The People’s Organization for Progress meets every Thursday at Abyssinian Baptist Church at 6:30pm.

For more information, please call 973 801 0001