MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An 82-year-old Black woman who became a civil rights pioneer when she was arrested for refusing to move to the back of an Alabama bus in 1955 wants to end the case once and for all.
Claudette Colvin was arrested by Montgomery police months before the better-known Rosa Parks became the mother of the movement by refusing to give up her seat to a white man.
Colvin was just 15 years old at the time and never got any notice her probation had ended. She says that resulted in decades of worry for relatives.
Colvin's lawyers filed the court request to finally expunge her record.
"I am an old woman now. Having my records expunged will mean something to my grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And it will mean something for other Black children," the Associated Press reports Colvin said in a sworn statement.
Supporters reportedly sang civil rights anthems and clapped as she walked into the clerk's office and filed the expungement request Tuesday. The Associated Press reports Colvin's attorney, Phillip Ensler, said he was "seeking all legal documents to be sealed and all records of the case erased."
AP reports Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey agreed with the request to clear Colvin's record, removing any doubt it would be approved.
"I guess you can say that now I am no longer a juvenile delinquent," AP says Colvin told a crowd standing outside.
Colvin was arrested in 1955 after refusing to move and sit in a different seat on the bus she was riding, AP explains. The police report says 15-year-old Colvin "put up a struggle" as officers removed her from the bus, kicking and scratching an officer.
She was convicted of violating the city's segregation law, disorderly conduct and assaulting an officer initially, but brought her charges down to only assault, AP reports.
The case was sent to juvenile court because of Colvin's age where a judge placed her on probation "as a ward of the state pending good behavior," according to AP. For years, Colvin never got the official news that she'd completed her probation.
Ensler said as of now it is uncertain when a judge might rule, AP says.
"My conviction for standing up for my constitutional right terrorized my family and relatives who knew only that they were not to talk about my arrest and conviction because people in town knew me as 'that girl from the bus,'" Colvin said.
