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Claudette Colvin was arrested in 1955 for refusing to surrender her seat on a bus. Now she's combating to get her file expunged

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Colvin’s authorized workforce stated Monday it plans to file a request Tuesday with a Montgomery County courtroom to clear Colvin’s file.

Colvin, now 82, was charged with two counts of violating of the town’s segregation ordinance and one felony rely of assaulting a police officer. She was convicted on all counts in juvenile courtroom, however the segregation convictions had been overturned on attraction.

“There have been two coloured females sitting reverse two white females, that refused to maneuver to the again with the remainder of the coloured,” the 1955 police arrest report stated. “Claudette Colvin, age 15, coloured feminine, refused. We then knowledgeable Claudette that she was beneath arrest.”

Colvin’s case got here 9 months earlier than Rosa Parks made historical past for additionally refusing to surrender her bus seat. Nevertheless, Parks’ case obtained extra consideration in the course of the civil rights motion partly as a result of Parks’ picture was extra “acceptable to a White” group, Colvin advised CNN earlier this 12 months. Parks was older, married and lighter skinned, she stated.

Black women's roles in the civil rights movement have been understated -- but that's changing

Colvin stated she “resisted” and was “defiant” when police arrested her on the bus. An officer wrote within the police report that Colvin kicked and scratched him after they put her within the police car.

“Folks stated I used to be loopy,” Colvin advised CNN. “As a result of I used to be 15 years outdated and defiant and shouting, ‘It is my constitutional proper!'”

In Colvin’s movement to get her file expunged, she stated she needs to see society progress and never regress.

“I need us to maneuver ahead and be higher,” Colvin stated within the submitting, obtained by CNN. “Once I take into consideration why I am searching for to have my identify cleared by the state, it’s as a result of I consider if that occurred it will present the era rising up now that progress is feasible and issues do get higher. It should encourage them to make the world higher.”

Whereas juvenile courtroom motions are sometimes shielded from the general public, Colvin’s authorized workforce stated in a press release that it launched the submitting “because of the distinctive public curiosity and historic significance of her case.”

Colvin’s lawyer, Phillip Ensler, stated the expungement of Colvin’s conviction is “lengthy overdue justice.”

“Folks suppose it was nearly a seat on a bus nevertheless it was about a lot greater than that,” Ensler stated.

Colvin finally turned one of many plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle in 1956. The next 12 months, the US Supreme Courtroom upheld the district courtroom’s ruling and ordered Montgomery — and the remainder of Alabama — to finish bus segregation.

Colvin’s household and authorized workforce say she is searching for the expungement now as a result of she plans to maneuver to Texas with household quickly.

Gloria Laster, Colvin’s youthful sister, advised CNN that Colvin needs to get her file cleared so she will be an instance for her grandchildren and nice grandchildren.

“That is going to be her legacy to them,” Laster stated. “I sat down on the bus in an effort to get up and take your rightful place as an American. And that is what she needs for her grandchildren and nice grandchildren. That is what she’s doing this for.”

The Montgomery County district lawyer can even file a movement in assist of Colvin’s expungement.

“I consider that the fees that had been (initially) introduced, had been introduced on bogus legal guidelines,” District Legal professional Daryl B. Bailey advised CNN. “It was completely illegal what the state, and regulation enforcement, did to this lady on the time.”

CNN’s Nicquel Terry Ellis and Abby Phillip contributed to this report.

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