Claudette Colvin sits for a portrait on February 5, 2009 in New York.
Julie Jacobson/AP
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Julie Jacobson/AP
Montgomery, Ala. – Claudette Colvin, whose 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus helped spark the modern civil rights movement, has died. She was 86 years old.
Her death was announced Tuesday by the Claudette Colvin Legacy Foundation. The organization’s Ashley D. Roseboro confirmed that he died of natural causes in Texas.
Colvin, at age 15, was arrested nine months before Rosa Parks achieved international fame because she refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus.
Colvin boarded a bus on March 2, 1955, on her way home from high school. The first rows were reserved for white passengers. Colvin was sitting in the back with other black passengers. When the white section was full, the bus driver ordered black passengers to give up their seats for white passengers. Colvin refused.
“My mindset was on independence,” Colvin said in refusing to give up his seat in 2021.
“So I wasn’t going to move that day,” she said. “I told them history had me glued to my seat.”
At the time of Colvin’s arrest, there was growing frustration over how black people were treated in the city bus system. Another black teenager, Mary Louise Smith, was arrested and fined in October for refusing to give up her seat for a white passenger.
It was the December 1, 1955 arrest of Parks, a local NAACP activist, that became the final catalyst for the year-long Montgomery bus boycott. The boycott thrust the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. into the national spotlight and is considered the beginning of the modern civil rights movement.
Colvin was one of four plaintiffs in the landmark lawsuit that outlawed racial segregation on Montgomery buses. His death comes just a month after Montgomery commemorated the 70th anniversary of the bus boycott.
Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said Colvin’s action “helped lay the legal and moral foundation for a movement that will change America.”
Colvin was never as famous as Parks, and Reed said his bravery was “often overlooked.”
Reid said, “Claudette Colvin’s life reminds us that movements are created not only by those whose names are most familiar, but also by those whose courage comes quickly, quietly, and at great personal cost.” “His legacy challenges us to tell the full truth of our history and to honor every voice that helped turn the corner toward justice.”
Colvin filed a petition to have his court records expunged in 2021. A judge granted the request.
Colvin said at the time, “When I think about why I want my name cleared by the state, it’s because I believe that if it happened it would show the growing up generation that progress is possible, and things do get better.” “It will inspire them to make the world a better place.”
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