Claudette Colvin, who refused to give up her bus seat months before Rosa Parks, has died at 86, leaving a legacy of courage that changed US history.
WASHINGTON: Claudette Colvin, a pioneering figure in the US civil rights movement, has died at the age of 86.
Her foundation announced her death, stating she “leaves behind a legacy of courage that helped change the course of American history.”
Colvin was just 15 years old when she refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 2, 1955.
Her act of defiance came nine months before a similar protest by Rosa Parks ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
“I remained seated because the lady could have sat in the seat opposite me,” Colvin explained in a 2023 interview.
“She refused because…a white person wasn’t supposed to sit close to a negro.”
Colvin was arrested and briefly imprisoned for disturbing public order.
The following year, she became a key plaintiff in a landmark lawsuit, *Browder v. Gayle*, which successfully challenged bus segregation laws.
That legal victory helped end segregation on public transportation across the United States.
Despite her pivotal role, Colvin’s story was long overshadowed by that of Rosa Parks.
Parks’ arrest later in 1955 triggered the famous bus boycott and propelled Martin Luther King Jr. to national prominence.
Colvin faced ostracism from movement leaders after becoming pregnant out of wedlock.
She subsequently lived for decades in relative obscurity, working for 30 years as a nursing assistant.
Her contributions gained wider recognition later in life through a award-winning biography.
A US court finally expunged the record of her 1955 arrest and adjudication in 2021.
