Art by Camilla Franklin
Claudette Colvin
Nimene creates a stirring hip hop track about the civil rights activist Claudette Colvin, who, as a teenager, refused to give up her seat on an Alabama city bus months before Rosa Parks’ famous protest. Featuring an interview between New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay and a 6 year old named Stella.
Extension Activity for Educators
Every episode features an extension activity with an activity for kids to celebrate our unsung heroes and learn more of their history! Today’s activity gives kids an opportunity to solve a problem or injustice int heir own community.
Click on the image or button below for the full activity!
Lyrics
CLAUDETTE COLVIN
Written by Nimene Wureh
Claudette that’s my name, miss
Alabama born and raised, sis
Montgomery to be specific
Hope you don’t mind these honorifics
09/05/39
The birth date of a future leader
Civil rights activist
A catalyst to be
Montgomery Bus Boycott began with me
Interviewer: Montgomery Bus Boycott?
That is correct
A lot of people don’t know bout this juicy tidbit
Couldn’t be the face of the movement because i wasn’t rich and
Because of my complexion
I’m never in the press
Just think
I was only 15
Following my routine
In a segregated seat
Years after that occurrence
I couldn’t find work and
I moved to New York and
Interviewer: You got into nursing
It began with me
9 months before Rosa
There was Claudette Colvin
And it began with me
Did ya know
Did ya know
I wouldn’t give up my seat
9 months before Rosa
It was Claudette Colvin
Lemme start from the beginning
My dad left, momma’s wallet was
thinning See, I was born Claudette Austin
Then I went to live with my uncle and my aunt and That’s how I got the name Colvin
Had a little sister yeah I was the oldest
Lost her to polio
God only knows my pain
I was sociologically estranged
Booker T. Washington high school
I started going there in 1952
It was in the city, a place I couldn’t walk to
So riding the bus is what I had to do
It was 1955
I didn’t give up my seat
They called the police
And they arrested me
But I had been learning ‘bout my ancestry
And in the Youth Council with NAACP
So I said, “I know my constitutional rights
There is an empty row beside me
So this isn’t right
Jim Crow says Blacks can’t sit across from the whites
We always gotta be behind them
And this I don’t like”
They pulled me off the bus
I didn’t fight or fuss
I didn’t feel fear cuz I was young and tough
They put me in an adult cell with
No phone call
But my friends went to find my mom
And it began with me
9 months before Rosa
There was Claudette Colvin
And it began with me
Did ya know
Did ya know
I wouldn’t give up my seat
9 months before Rosa
It was Claudette Colvin
1 year later, we had Browder V. Gayle
I was 1 of 5 plaintiffs
Talking ‘bout how the law had failed
All of us and we wasn’t gonna take it
The federal court, they made their decision
The supreme court, they made their decision
They said bus segregation was against the constitution And they ended it permanently
And it began with me
9 months before Rosa
There was Claudette Colvin
And it began with me
Did ya know
Did ya know
I wouldn’t give up my seat
9 months before Rosa
It was Claudette Colvin
Claudette that’s my name, miss Alabama born and raised, sis
Montgomery to be specific
Hope you don’t mind these honorifics
09/05/39
The birth date of a future leader
Civil rights activist
A catalyst to be
Montgomery Bus Boycott began with me
Special Guests:
Roxane Gay
The New York Times Bestselling author of The Bad Feminist and other books and publications, a professor, editor, and social commentator.
Stella
Stella is a 6-year-old kid activist whose favorite thing in life is TV!
The song ‘Claudette Colvin’ was written by Nimene Wureh and produced by Stro Elliot, with additional production by Eric Gersen
