police department.Besides, my mother was convinced God wouldnât forgive you for an abortion. My dad threatened to kill the fatherâhe was so much older than I was. Then my dad got worried that the fatherâs wifeâs family was going to accuse me of breaking up their marriage and come after us. My parents insisted that I not tell anyone who the father was. I wanted to tell, to explain what had happened to me so that people would understand, but I gave in and kept quiet.
My mom just took over my life at that point. Usually I was stronger, but right then I was easy to control. Of course I couldnât marry the father; I didnât love him and he was already married. My boyfriend, Fred Harvey, came to our house and asked to marry me, but my mother said he would just be doing it out of pity. I wanted to say yes, but I backed down.
We decided Iâd keep my pregnancy a secret as long as I could so I wouldnât get kicked out of school. The rule at Booker T. Washington was âIf youâre pregnant, youâre out.â Then, when Christmas break came, I would tell the school I was sick and go to Birmingham and live with my birth mother and have the baby there. After that I would leave the baby with her for a while and come back to Montgomery and finish high school. I would only have one semester left.
But I started showing too early. Late in the fall a few girls caught on. Theyâd say, âI thought you had more sense.â I didnât have any answer to
that
. The teachers always had an eye out for pregnant girlsâit was very common. They knew the signs. So one day I got called down to the office. I went in to see the principal, Mr. Smiley. I said, âI know why Iâm here; you donât have to bother saying it,â but he did anyway. And he added, âDonât come back after Christmas break.â
So we had to change strategies. Our new plan was for me to have the baby in Birmingham and finish school there. I had never officially changed my last name on my birth certificate to Colvinâit still said I was Claudette Austin. So I could enroll as Claudette Austin and finish high school in Birmingham.
One day a few weeks before Christmas, I was at home, trying to get ready in my mind for all the changes to comeâchanges in my body, becoming a mother, not going to Booker T. Washington, moving away from my Montgomery familyâwhen a neighbor girl walked over from across the street carrying a piece of paper. She handed it to me and said, âYou gotta read this.â The three of usâher, me, and Momâstood out inthe front yard reading it. It was the boycott leaflet: âDonât ride the bus on Monday.â Right away I saw my nameâmisspelled: âClaudette Colbert.â My first thought was, If they had just called me, I could have at least reminded them how to spell my name.
But it didnât say who the Negro woman was who got arrested. When I heard on the news that it was Rosa Parks, I had several feelings: I was glad an adult had finally stood up to the system, but I felt left out. I was thinking, Hey, I did that months ago and everybody dropped me. There was a time when I thought I would be the centerpiece of the bus case. I was eager to keep going in court. I had wanted them to keep appealing my case. I had enough self-confidence to keep going. Maybe adults thought a teenagerâs testimony wouldnât hold up in the legal system. But what I did know is they all turned their backs on me, especially after I got pregnant. It really, really hurt. But on the other hand, having been with Rosa at the NAACP meetings, I thought, Well, maybe sheâs the right personâsheâs strong and adults wonât listen to me anyway. One thing was for sure: no matter how I felt or what I thought, I wasnât going to get my chance.
D R . M ARTIN L UTHER K ING , J R ., rose early the morning of Monday, December 5, rushed to his