Where Are They Now? 10 Female Icons In Black History Who Are Still Living And Making A Difference
Claudette Colvin
In 1955, Colvin was the first person to not give up her seat on a segregated bus and helped end bus segregation in Alabama. However, her story wasn’t publicized the way that Rosa Parks’ was because she became a teenage mother. The NAACP wasn’t comfortable using her as a representative in such a movement for change.
Now 75, Colvin lives in NYC and is retired after years of working as a nurse’s aide, and she has been able to share her story, which was stifled for so long. Colvin’s story has since been told in many ways. A biography, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, won a 2009 National Book Award, and a poem written by Rita Dove, “Claudette Colvin Goes To Work,” was published in Dove’s book of collected poetry: On the Bus with Rosa Parks back in 1999.
