Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

May 11, 1956 was the day of the Browder v. Gayle hearing. By this point, the bus boycott had been going on for almost half a year, and was still going strong despite 100 prominent Black activists—including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Fred Gray, Jo Ann Robinson, E. D. Nixon, and Pastor Johnson—being indicted for inciting an illegal protest. The charges did little to quell the movement, and all eyes were on the new case which had the potential to give the boycotters a resounding victory. The case was officially called Browder v. Gayle, Browder being the plaintiff with the name that came first alphabetically, and Gayle being the mayor of Montgomery. Claudette dressed in her best clothes and handed Raymond over to Mama Sweetie, who had moved from Pine Level a few years earlier. Along with her father, she made her way to the packed courthouse to give her statement alongside four other plaintiffs, all of whom were women.

The presiding judges were Richard Rives, Seyborn Lynne, and Frank Johnson—a recently appointed judge who would go on to make several instrumental rulings in civil rights cases.