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House adopts resolution honoring Claudette Colvin
Summary
The House unanimously adopted a time‑sensitive resolution memorializing Claudette Colvin, noting her 1955 arrest at age 15, role as a plaintiff in Browder v. Gale, later honors and the 2021 expungement of her juvenile record by Judge Calvin Williams.
The House suspended the rules to read and adopt a resolution honoring Claudette Colvin, who was arrested in Montgomery in 1955 at age 15 after refusing to give up her seat on a bus — nine months before Rosa Parks’ arrest. Representative Ensler asked the chamber to observe a moment of silence and introduced the resolution, which recounted Colvin’s life and role as a plaintiff in what became Browder v. Gale, the court case that helped end mandated bus segregation in Alabama.
The resolution text read from the floor noted Colvin’s birth in Birmingham on Sept. 5, 1939, her early schooling and later recognition, including honors from New York and coverage in national media. It also noted that Colvin petitioned to expunge her juvenile record and that in 2021 Judge Calvin Williams ordered the expungement. The resolution thanked her for “paying it forward” through the Claudette Colvin Foundation and called for her death to be recorded with sadness and her life celebrated.
After the reading, the speaker asked for the ayes and announced the resolution was adopted. No roll-call tally was recorded in the transcript; members responded verbally and the chair declared the ayes have it.
The action was procedural and commemorative; the resolution memorializes Colvin’s role in civil‑rights history and the House’s recognition of her life and legacy.
