Claudette Colvin

Chapter Nine? Chapter Nine opens on May 11th, 1956. It is Claudette's court date. Her family takes her to the courthouse and she and Fred Gray are greeted by a large crowd of supporters. It was the 159th day since the Montgomery bus boycott began; the lawsuit gave the crowd hope. In the meanwhile, the segregationists continued to resist changing anything for the boycott. Many singled out Martin Luther King to blame for "stirring up trouble" and the like. He had been attacked several times. Segregationists had also used an obscure anti-boycott law to have many black leaders arrested, including King and Parks. The youngest of the three federal judges was Frank M. Johnson, a young man from Alabama who people assumed was on the side of segregation. The other two were justices Richard Rives and Seybourn Lynne. Claudette was one of four plaintiffs.

Gray began his argument that segregation violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. He would present each of his plaintiffs, one by one. Mrs. Browder was first, then Susie McDonald and Mary Louise Smith. They all testified to their poor treatment and would not admit the prosecution's accusation that they were all King's puppets. When Claudette went up to the stand, she was nervous. She was last, as her story was the most powerful. Gray questioned her on her story quickly and then the prosecutor, Walter Knabe, started to question her. He pursued the same strategy with her, but she stood strong. She had become the star witness. At lunch, she was able to meet Mary Louise,and they liked each other a lot. After lunch, the Mayor and city commissioners testified that segregation laws were required for city order. But Judge Rives replied that one cannot command one person to give up their Constitutional rights so that others won't commit a crime. When Claudette left the courthouse, everyone told her that she did great. Her parents were proud of her and she was proud of herself.