The Almost Case of Claudette Colvin - 9900

On March 2, 1955, a handful of white people sought to board a city bus as it chugged up Dexter Avenue to the Court Street stop. The white bus driver looked back into the bus and saw that there were not enough seats on the bus for the people to sit down. In the no-man's-land section of the bus, there were a number of African-Americans sitting down. The driver pointed back and said, "give me those seats." In Birmingham Alabama in 1955, there was a law stating that African-Americans had to give up their seats to whites if there were not enough spaces available. This was one of the hated Jim Crow laws that had plagued African-Americans since the end of the Civil War.

One woman refused to move, even after police came and told her that they were going to arrest her. Her name was Claudette Colvin. She was a high school student. When the police decided to take her, she went kicking and screaming. She swore at the police and some of the bystanders. The police threw the book at her. She was charged with violating the segregation law, assault, and disorderly conduct. There was a good chance that she was going to go to jail rather than finish high school. All of this for refusing to give up her seat on the bus for a white person.

The Birmingham African-American community immediately prepared to defend the girl in court. E.D. Nixon, a local leader, met with a friendly white lawyer named Clifford Durr to decide what to do about the Colvin case. The two of them interviewed Colvin, the witnesses, the police, and Colvin's family. They decided that the best approach was to try to negotiate with the city government. They set up a committee that included the police commissioner, representatives from the bus company, and a young preacher by the name of Martin Luther King.

The negotiations didn't get very far. The Colvin supporters wanted the law changed so that they wouldn't have to give up seats, but the bus company and the police commissioner refused. Meanwhile, Colvin was found guilty. The judge was very smart though. He didn't convict Colvin on the segregation charge, only the assault one. This meant that Durr would not have a case that he could take to the Supreme Court. The judge knew that Durr would appeal a segregation case, so he convicted on a charge that would be difficult to appeal. He also only sentenced Colvin with only a small fine. This was enough to prove she was wrong, but would make it difficult for the African-American community to claim massive wrong.

Durr and Nixon checked the information they had again. They decided that the Colvin case was not the one that they wanted to fight. They decided to back off and wait for a better case.

1) What were the reasons that Durr and Nixon decided not to pursue the Colvin case? (Be as detailed as possible.)

2) Explain why it was fair or unfair to pursue the Colvin case.

Rosa Parks

On Thursday, December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks left the Montgomery Fair department store late in the afternoon for her regular bus ride home. Parks sat down in the last seat of the bus, in no-man's-land. At the next stop, a white man got on the bus. The driver pointed to Rosa Parks and told her to move from the seat. She said that she was in no-man's-land and that she didn't think that she should. The driver went and got the police. Rosa Parks was taken peacefully to the station and booked.

Once again, Durr and Nixon swung into action to figure out if this was the case they were looking for. They liked what they saw. Rosa Parks was a long-time employee of the department store. She dressed well and was as close to middle class as African-Americans could get at the time. She was a religious church-goer and many of Birmingham's African-Americans knew and respected her. She was humble enough to be claimed by the city's African-American community and dignified enough in speech, manner and dress to appeal to sympathetic whites. The best part was that the only thing she was accused of doing was breaking the segregation laws.

Nixon and Durr decided that the only thing left to do was ask Rosa Parks herself if she was willing to be the center of the challenge to the segregation laws. She asked her husband, who advised her not to do it because he feared that angry whites would kill her. Rosa Parks agreed to fight the case anyway.

The first step for the African-American community of Birmingham was to organize a bus boycott until the law was suspended. African-Americans rarely had enough money to own cars, so they mostly rode the bus. As a result, they made up the majority of the bus riders. The boycott was announced through a mimeographed flyer. Durr and Nixon were afraid to try to deliver the flyer. They knew that if they tried to do it and were caught, there was a good chance that whites would beat up or kill the people handing it out. They also were not sure they could reach enough people traveling around. The best way, they decided, was to distribute the flyer at church on Sunday. Birmingham's churches were segregated, so there was little chance that a white person would find out about it until it was too late. Also, this would mean that the most respected people in the African-American community would be leading the way.

Martin Luther King agreed to organize the churches in support of the boycott. He made sure that the flyers were distributed throughout the town. That Monday, the boycott started and was very successful. King quickly became the leader of the movement. He was an amazing speaker, an expert in non-violence, and a brilliant organizer. His speeches kept the community strong through the ordeal that lasted 11 months, until November 13, 1956, when the Supreme Court declared segregated buses unconstitutional.

3) Why did Nixon and Durr decide to pursue the Parks case? (Be as detailed as possible.)

4) Which came first in the Colvin and Parks cases, justice or possibility of winning?

5) Why is it a good idea to plan justice carefully?