Civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin, whose courageous refusal to surrender her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 helped ignite the modern civil rights movement, has died at 86.
Her passing was confirmed on Tuesday by the Claudette Colvin Legacy Foundation. Colvin’s act of defiance occurred months before Rosa Parks gained international recognition for a similar stand.
On March 2, 1955, a bus driver called the police after two Black girls were observed sitting near two white girls, violating segregation laws.
The then 15-year-old Colvin refused to move to the rear, leading to her arrest; the other girl moved seats.
She later became a named plaintiff in the landmark lawsuit that ultimately outlawed racial segregation on Montgomery’s public transport system.
