Following her arrest, Claudette Colvin promptly disappeared from the annals of civil rights history, overshadowed by the narrative of Rosa Parks. She eventually moved to New York City, according to NPR News, and by that time, the conversation about civil rights had turned from segregation to larger issues such as Black enterprises and Black power. She worked as a nurse's aide, had children, and continued to work as a civil rights activist.
In 2021, according to CNN, she petitioned the courts to have her criminal record expunged. Montgomery County Juvenile Judge Calvin Williams agreed with her plea, and ordered the records of Colvin's arrest, 66 years earlier, destroyed. He noted that the teenager's actions that day were "a courageous act on her behalf and on behalf of a community of affected people."
As for Colvin, she says that having her name cleared legally six and a half decades after the fact is progress, in its own way. "When I think about why I'm seeking to have my name cleared by the state, it is because I believe if that happened, it would show the generation growing up now that progress is possible and things do get better. It will inspire them to make the world better," she said.
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