Title: Honoring the life and courage of Claudette Colvin.
Policy area: Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues

Summary:
This resolution recognizes Claudette Colvin as an integral figure of the civil rights movement and honors her actions leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the related Supreme Court ruling that found segregation on buses to be unconstitutional.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 944 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 944

           Honoring the life and courage of Claudette Colvin.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 25, 2022

Mr. Lawson of Florida (for himself, Ms. Sewell, Ms. Norton, Ms. Adams, 
 Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Mr. Carson, Mrs. Lawrence, Ms. Wilson of 
Florida, Mr. David Scott of Georgia, Ms. Omar, Mr. Carter of Louisiana, 
 Mr. Raskin, Mr. Vargas, Ms. Tlaib, Mr. Tonko, Mr. Veasey, Mr. Khanna, 
 Mr. Cardenas, Mr. Suozzi, Ms. McCollum, Ms. Williams of Georgia, Ms. 
 Schakowsky, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Schneider, Ms. Bonamici, Mrs. Hayes, Mrs. 
  Cherfilus-McCormick, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Ms. Lee of California, 
 Mrs. Watson Coleman, Mr. Brown of Maryland, Ms. Jackson Lee, and Mr. 
 Neguse) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
           Honoring the life and courage of Claudette Colvin.

Whereas, on March 2, 1955, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin, a student at Booker T. 
        Washington High School, refused to give up her seat in the ``colored'' 
        section of the bus for a White person on her ride home from school in 
        Montgomery, Alabama;
Whereas Claudette Colvin was forcibly removed from the bus and arrested for 
        disturbing the peace, assault of a police officer, and disobeying 
        segregation laws;
Whereas Claudette Colvin was escorted by Montgomery police officers to jail, and 
        eventually sentenced to indefinite probation for assault of a police 
        officer;
Whereas Claudette Colvin was a member of the local National Association for the 
        Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Youth Council, and worked with 
        Rosa Parks, the Montgomery chapter NAACP secretary;
Whereas Rosa Parks was arrested for the same act as Claudette Colvin nine months 
        later in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955, and sparked the 
        Montgomery Bus Boycott;
Whereas Claudette Colvin was not recognized nationally at the time for her 
        historic protest of Jim Crow segregation laws due to her age, 
        appearance, and pregnancy;
Whereas Claudette Colvin was one of four plaintiffs and testified in the 1956 
        Browder v. Gayle case that challenged Alabama State statutes on bus 
        segregation;
Whereas, on November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the 
        District Court that the State of Alabama's bus segregation laws violated 
        the rights of African Americans as stated in the Fourteenth Amendment to 
        the Constitution;
Whereas the Supreme Court Browder v. Gayle ruling signaled the end of the 382-
        day Montgomery Bus Boycott;
Whereas Claudette Colvin went on to become a nurse's aide in Manhattan, New 
        York, and retired in 2004; and
Whereas, in October 2021, Claudette Colvin filed a motion in Montgomery Juvenile 
        Court to have her record expunged: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, the House of Representatives--
            (1) recognizes Claudette Colvin as an integral figure of 
        the civil rights movement, for which she, as a teenager, 
        advocated for the constitutional rights of all African 
        Americans; and
            (2) honors the brave actions of Claudette Colvin which led 
        to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the landmark Supreme Court 
        Browder v. Gayle ruling.
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