 Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. I'm Marion Woods and it is indeed a privilege and honor for me To engage in this conversation with Claudette Colvin. I Have just a couple of opening comments to make and then we'll be hearing from Claudette Claudette Colvin decision in March of 1955 To refuse to give up her seat on that bus in Montgomery, Alabama Was a dress rehearsal for what was to come later the defiance of convention and customs by a young 15-year-old black girl Claudette Colvin Places her in the same historical position as Christmas addicts who was the first to defy and the first to die and Launching the American Revolution The history of the rose played By unsung black heroes and heroines are not often highlighted in our history We cannot depend Are we lie? solely on the dominant society for the preservation of culture of minority groups We must chronicle our own history and transfer this to our children Through those apparatus of mechanisms available to us but without that The majority culture will colonize our minds and Prevent us from continuing the struggle that Claudette and others began with the help of this apparatus facing history and through the work of an artist such as Awely Makiba We will find ourselves Without a sense of value tradition or more rays which contribute to our development without which We would be a lost people We want to express our appreciation of this opportunity to facing history for bringing to our conscience after 50 years the courage of Claudette Colvin 50 years after her experience as a woman she is finally receiving her due as the first to sow the seeds of Future change in civil rights laws through her courage and her heroic defiance of the convention of the day When that bus driver said give me those seats and She decided not to get up Is remarkable For this kind of courage is the foundation that underlies and gives reality to all other virtues and personal values The kind of decision that she made takes courage as a person who grew up in the South It's incredible to me to even visualize That someone would question that system In Claudette in your own words, would you tell us why on that day as a 16 year old You decided not to give up your seat. Oh Thank you as I relate my story First I was 15 or 16 15. Thank you It happened March the second and as you know February we had Negro history we got I miss a Negro history mind and at February We had been discussing in classrooms all the different injustices that Jim Crow law had created so I had our teacher by the name is Ms. Nesley All the other teachers say that she was an unassadopted teacher and Our she taught me about this Constitution and what not to do and What to expect of what we should not do as black citizens and I said, you know under the segregation laws, so It was the arrest of one of my classmates What treated me really treated me It was because this student was from the same school. I was wrong. He was arrested for having a Affair with the white woman and later he was executed he was electrocuted and During that time the students had to go around and collect money The best way we could setting cook and bake cookies sales different things chances and you know going around collecting what we was Going through this in a such a way that you couldn't you know really really get You know, you got Emotional about it. The reason why you got emotional about it is because when the same thing happened to a black girl a black girl and It's involved a white man Nothing was done about it So that's who was one of these things it was several things You know, there was white sign that was white White sign saying white and then I was another science and color now This was throughout the South are This was at the stores This was on the bus and then we you know, we didn't go to church together So I was very aware of that so that was one of the first thing that treated me In addition to the signs colored only white only drinking fountains and I guess different tasting water What are the other things in a gym crow experience? I have the child. I remember this vividly I was in a five and ten. Oh my goodness the aroma of that Lunch area the you could smell it in a Oh goodness, but we couldn't sit down and eat we had a little tiny narrow space at the back where you had to where you could buy hot dogs and soda and That and I remember that that was one of the things and then when you were shopping It was I remember this little white girl You know, like that. I'm just I'm speaking back some of our 50 years ago It was all this coloring book and I had picked up my coloring book and she had picked up hers So I was Related to my mother and I was naming some of the characters. I was saying, oh my look Cinderella There's no white and all I was saying all the pictures, you know, the uncolored pictures, you know the little diagrams they have and the white girl looked over she didn't like her her coloring book and I but Then she looked and her mother say give me the book and She just snatched the book. She didn't you know, she didn't say well You had changed the book a coloring book for my daughter She just snatched it out of my head and my mother and I give it back my mother just gave me a backhand slap and I said Why did you do it? Mama? She said this is a white world. You cannot do that in Front in front of white people. They always have the first choice So as a kid that's stuck with me Thank you, I think now would be a good time To have a presentation by a Wally McCabe a Wally Were you conscious of the things that were going on in 1955 in the civil rights area, yes some through the teachers and my history teacher Mr. Jocelyn She had taught me about the world and the history of the world and one way she did it She had us to subscribe for current event and that teach you, you know, that take a large area a couple of large area And I learned about first time a teacher black teacher really discussed Africa and at that time or there was our movement in Africa and The people they was called in my mouth the black people that was having the uprising Rising they was calling my mouth and then in the United States. That was brown Versus Board of Education so I knew about that and I knew about our black people like they are Black women political organization in Montgomery will go to the city council I'm gonna say to this city council to ask for better housing paved streak and indoor plumbing So I knew about, you know, these things was going on Who were your role models? Did you know Rosa Parks and Martin King at the time, uh, I didn't I knew Rosa Park Rosa Parks knew my family and I didn't know it until I met Rosa Park at her organization And she introduced her group She knew my mother my mother and Rosa Park and her brother they knew each other and my mother would go to Rosa Park's house and I'll play in play with her brother Sylvester and Rosa so it's her brother Sylvester Rosa were much a little over but Rosa knew my family so she wasn't a stranger and during that summer to raise money again I ran for miss in a ACP And then it was it was two other contestants, but Rosa Park was my chaperone and I I spent the night with Rosa because it would be too late to get a bus to go back town and um, Rosa Park mother baked cookies and we went dough to dough chocolate chip cookies and she was telling me don't eat a lot too. She said we need to sell these And um, Rosa she was a very reserved lady uh, I talked more with Rosa mother And she told me some of the story about pine level where they come from and they had lived a short while and um Rosa told you know Rosa talked about my mother and uh I liked how she felt about it How she felt about the uh, she had had some similar experience different times But she knew about the injustice that I had and then she later introduced me to a group and They selected me to be secretary for that group And that was uh, I was very uh glad of that but Rosa lived wasn't in didn't live in my community She lived across town and she lived um on Cleveland Avenue and I lived on the area called Kings Hill King Hill was a little less affluent than the other black communities because of We were sandwiched in between two white communities uh, one was capital hikes and one was uh, howling garden and we lived on this elevated land Landscape and we could look down on the other black community and we called ourselves king hill and we and um You know, it was very interesting and um, it was enjoyable childhood and Playing and listen to rock and roll music And we later had to pad our park called king hill park We only had two parks in Montgomery one was king hill park and I was glad that they had chosen our Our community to put this park and they had one called washington park Because we couldn't go to the white parks. We could walk through the past to our community But we couldn't sit on the park benches That's how gym pro-law was in those days. You couldn't sit on the uh park benches So but you could walk through the park so, um, it was uh, a long time before um People began to see that this change was taking place You know the revolution what i'm saying was in the air And even in my community people was talking about it But they didn't want they were talking about it, but they didn't come out openly and talk about it They were talking about it amongst themselves But tell us we we all know About rows of parks experience in december of 1955 But we don't know much About your experience in march of 1955 Why weren't you chosen to be that model for ending segregation? uh, I think When that question comes to me I was a minor And the black people are needing that adult person for the legal, you know Oh for the legal loris or all the legal action and I was a minor and I couldn't participate that way But uh, I think the organization Finally picks on one who they thought wouldn't be so militant because uh, Rosie is kind of a mile in mile manner a real gentle lady like and so they thought I was going to be closer to Angela Davis So A lot of people said it was skin color, but coming from a black community I know if I was Of my complexion I know Because Jim Crow is so great that I couldn't run from this book of T. Washington You had to have a black A black person had to have a certain length of hair and a certain skin tone So a lot of the people feel that it was because rosa had a fairer complexion Then I had a finer closer to white features than I mean So but I think it was because of the legal action and choosing the correct icon to keep this Movement going non-violent But I wasn't a violent person, but they didn't know that Well, we know that was a turning point in your life, uh, what are other experiences that you consider as turning points? um Well, uh, some of the turn of excuse me explain What do you want me to say about turning points the things that uh happened to you that made you look at the world different than you had before uh One of the things uh when Martin Luther King came down, uh, and he um, uh organized the movement um different people, uh You know, I saw different people of different color and I saw white people with the student group And I know that something was happening if these white children Comes in the bus, you know what i'm talking about the buses The bus ride in the city. I knew something was happening. I was at home watching tea I was working hard But I was glued to the tv to see what little news because they were saying every time that was a sit-in Every time there was now something about a bus, uh, you know some rebellion that was going on I knew these white students Well, I had got the message that the black children students wanted a change They didn't want they well they wanted to change so that they could have a better opportunity to have a better career Besides being school teachers and preachers and nurses They wanted to open up the whole uh, you know The whole thing so they the educational process or the institutional process so that they could get a different career Just than being school teachers and preachers and nurses So I knew that was coming. Thank you that uh, I think gives us a pause to Invite a William McKieber once again for a presentation You need to give me that seat. Do you need me to get the police? Well, you need to get up right now and get to the back of the bus now, you know, it's against the law Miss Hamilton. She just got up. She went to the back of the bus. Mr. Harris since then there was going to be trouble He got up and gave her his seat Officer no I didn't know it was against the law that a color person had to get up and And give a white person their seat when there are no vacant seats and color people standing up already, sir That's not what the city ordinance says get up gal No, sir Now I've paid my dime I've paid my fare. It's my right my constitutional right. I'm a citizen of the united states You just read that 13th and 14th amendment it'll tell you so I know the law my teacher miss nears, but she been teaching us the law my teacher She be pricking our minds trying to see what we're thinking about one day think they see, huh? Who are you? Who are you on the inside? How you think? How you feel what you believe? Would you be willing? Stand up for what you believe and even if someone wants to hold you back because you're different Do you like your beautiful brown skin children? Do you? Yes, say what does it mean to be an american? You need to understand who you are children Say we gotta see for ourselves. She say we gotta act. She say That's why we study history and current events So we can understand everything that's going on and and we can just stop them about it So say something somebody don't you know your rights? You know your rights if we speak the first amendment officer I know that I hate Jim Crow I I know that if a man ain't got nothing worth that for he ain't got nothing worth living for so you can give me liberty Or give me death I don't care drag me up in his bus. Take me to jail What's wrong with this little black? Let's take that an act more safe prison and get rid of her No, no, no, no Yes, sir. I was booked in charge for different things Violating segregation code disorderly conduct resistant arrest and assault Yes, sir You were found guilty for assaulting an officer There are a lot of young people here What would you have to say to a person who wants to stand up for what they believe? Uh, I believe that if you see some injustice Going on or something that you think is not right. You you feel that it's wrong Don't be afraid to stand up Because if you stand up Most of the time one person stand up someone else you maybe another person stand up with you But stand up if you have to stand up alone Stand up because you make it you make the sacrifice and you make it better for someone else and um for the uh, I address this to african-american because I feel that uh, the struggle was with african-american, but It involved all races because you cannot Segregation is a burden when you have uh for everyone To abide by these lords. You don't want people going around saying that oh, she's mean to me because she's white Uh, she means to me because she's yellow or brown but The younger children should learn that the world is not made up of one race If you look at the map, you know It's not one race the world is of a lot of people. We are the world So uh, I said to the african-american student It's like my old teacher said get in the books and read because if you get an education that'd be a tool for you to use Well for whatever A career or whatever thing you choose to do you will be more aware of your surroundings And don't be afraid to make a difference stand up for what's right Thank you claudette culvin And let me say finally that A man or a woman reaches Becomes mature because of the choices And the commitments they have And these decisions where people attain worth and dignity By the multitude of decisions they make from day to day The decisions take courage And we are honored to be in the presence of courage Thank you. Thank you