By
History has been a constant presence in the lives of Boston College School of Social Work student Jennifer Colvin and her family.
For the Colvins, history became personal 60 years ago this month – on March 2, 1955 – in Montgomery, Alabama, when Jennifer’s grandmother, Claudette Colvin, made a fateful decision: She refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus, and was promptly arrested and thrown in jail.
It was an unprecedented act of defiance in the segregation-era South, especially given that Claudette Colvin was all of 15 years old. Almost a year later, Colvin became a plaintiff in a federal civil action lawsuit against Montgomery and Alabama bus segregation laws. She and her fellow plaintiffs won in district court, and their victory was upheld by the US Supreme Court in November of 1956.
But for decades, Claudette’s act was overshadowed by that of Rosa Parks, even though it occurred nine months before Parks’ similar refusal to heed Montgomery’s bus segregation laws attracted international attention – and, in the eyes of many, helped set in motion the civil rights movement.
In recent years, Claudette Colvin has shared her experiences, through the book Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, authored by Phillip Hoose, as well as via interviews with the media and through personal appearances – including an event sponsored by BCSSW on Feb. 19 in the Heights Room of Corcoran Commons, which Jennifer attended along with her mother, Cheryl (Claudette’s daughter-in-law), a co-organizer of the 50th anniversary commemoration of the Selma civil rights march.
Claudette’s story is a complicated one, both in its details and its unfolding, with nuances that defy a clear-cut, made-for-TV narrative. The belated recognition of Claudette as a civil rights pioneer brought the Colvin family into public scrutiny, not all of it positive or welcome. Nonetheless, Jennifer has accepted the fact that this pivotal chapter in the history of her family also belongs to the history of this country.
“She literally changed America,” says Jennifer of her grandmother, now retired and living in New York City. “I’m impressed that she changed America and indirectly impacted movements all over the world that stemmed from the civil rights movement here in the US.”
Proud as she is of her family chronicle, Jennifer is determined to write her own story, one that reflects her particular perspectives and interests where social justice is concerned. She took a step in that direction by choosing BCSSW, where she is enrolled in the Global Practice concentration and co-leads the Global Forum on Social Issues student group. She’s also an intern in Boston’s Office of Fair Housing and Equity; during one recent cold winter night, she assisted in the annual census of the city’s homeless.
“I want to focus on immigrants and refugees, and apply social work principles on an international basis,” explains Jennifer, a 2013 graduate of Georgia State University with a degree in international studies who spent part of last year in Africa working with refugees. “Because my family is so attached to American history, I wanted to see what else is out there. I’ll never give up going to civil rights events and will always be interested in American civil rights issues – but what happens in the US is not always what’s happening in the rest of the world.”
A native of Atlanta who was homeschooled in early childhood, Jennifer says she feels as if she “always knew” about her grandmother. As she grew older, Jennifer began to better appreciate what Claudette had done, and to respect her for it.
“When you’re young, you don’t really understand about racism and inequality. But when you get older, you realize how the world is. I started to see the interconnectedness of what she went through with everything else going on, and that impressed me even more.”
Jennifer’s evolving revelations about Claudette coincided with the growing public and media interest in her grandmother. Claudette, she says, was matter-of-fact about all the attention she attracted, and the events where she was invited to appear.
“I’d ask her if she was excited about it, and she’d say, ‘I’m too old to get excited,’” recalls Jennifer. “For her, it was simply about sharing a memory that is very important to her. An actor can pretend to be a character, and a singer can sing a song someone else wrote, but however well they do it, it’s not the same as somebody speaking from their memory.”
Revisiting that period, however, inevitably brought back some uncomfortable, and painful, aspects of Claudette’s life that had been private – and now became the subject of speculation and discussion in the public arena. Moreover, the magnifying glass also was trained on the Colvin family itself, says Jennifer.
“People want to assess you for your connections,” she explains. “They ask, ‘Did you make it to where you are because of your family, or because you really deserve to?’ My dad’s a CPA, I have a brother who’s a doctor – everyone in my family is accomplished. But it doesn’t have anything to do with our last name; it’s because we worked hard for what we have, and for each of us to be our own person.”
Reflecting on her own journey, Jennifer says she always had an interest in social issues and doing what she could to help others less fortunate. But until recently, that had not translated into a desire to study social work.
“I associated social work with child and family services, or welfare,” she says. “I didn’t want to get into any of that. And I didn’t want to ‘save the world.’ I wanted to help the community.”
But Jennifer began to see a connection between these supposedly disparate threads one day last year, when – in the midst of pondering the next stage of her life – she found herself on the BCSSW website. She had never been to Boston, knew nothing about Boston College, but as she read about the Global Practice program, she saw a means to develop professional skills and philosophies that could serve a community of great dimensions.
Jennifer applied, and was accepted, to BCSSW before she even set foot in Boston. “It all seemed so welcoming – the website, the school, BC, Boston.”
She felt her decision was vindicated upon hearing BCSSW Dean Alberto Godenzi’s welcome during orientation last fall, which subsequently led to a one-on-one meeting with Godenzi where she talked about her life and sources of inspiration – including her grandmother. That visit, in turn, prompted Godenzi to invite Claudette to speak as part of BCSSW’s yearlong focus on race and justice.
“I feel very good about my career goals, and I think a large part of that is the support I’ve received from Dean Godenzi and the rest of BCSSW,” says Jennifer.
Does she ever wonder what life would be like if her grandmother’s story hadn’t become so widely known?
“Every now and then, I think I just want to be average,” she says, smiling. “But average is boring.”
To read about Claudette Colvin’s Feb. 19 appearance at Boston College, go to http://bit.ly/1wI3zi9.