Civil rights trailblazer Claudette Colvin, arrested at age 15 for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white woman in Montgomery, Alabama, died on Tuesday at age 86.
Her death was announced by the Claudette Colvin Legacy Foundation. Ashley D. Roseboro of the organization confirmed she died of natural causes in Texas.
“To us, she was more than a historical figure. She was the heart of our family, wise, resilient, and grounded in faith,” the Claudette Colvin Foundation said in a statement announcing her death. “We will remember her laughter, her sharp wit, and her unwavering belief in justice and human dignity.”
On March 2, 1955, Colvin was headed home from school on a Montgomery city bus. The first rows on the bus were reserved for white passengers. Colvin sat in the rear with other Black passengers. When the white section became full, the bus driver ordered Black passengers to relinquish their seats to white passengers. She did the unthinkable at the time and refused the order.
Colvin was arrested that day and charged with assault and battery of an officer, disorderly conduct, and for violating the bus segregation ordinance.
Colvin’s refusal to give up her seat took place nine months before Rosa Parks’ similar but more famous act of defiance. On Dec. 1, 1955, Parks, a local NAACP activist, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. The bold move became the final catalyst for the yearlong Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott propelled the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. into the national limelight and is considered the start of the modern civil rights movement.
As a result of the Boycott, a Supreme Court ruling and declining revenues forced the city to desegregate its buses thirteen months later.
Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said Colvin’s action “helped lay the legal and moral foundation for the movement that would change America.”
Colvin was never as well-known as Parks, and Reed said her bravery “was too often overlooked.”
“Claudette Colvin’s life reminds us that movements are built not only by those whose names are most familiar, but by those whose courage comes early, quietly, and at great personal cost,” Reed said. “Her legacy challenges us to tell the full truth of our history and to honor every voice that helped bend the arc toward justice.”