Claudette Colvin, the teenager who became a key figure in the American civil rights movement, has died at 86. She passed away in Texas, where she had returned to receive hospice care. Colvin gained notoriety at just 15 years old when she was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white woman in Montgomery, Alabama. Her act of defiance happened nine months before Rosa Parks’ more famous protest. Yet it provided an essential legal foundation for the fight against racial segregation on public transit.
Born to a disenfranchised, working-class family in Alabama, Colvin navigated a life filled with poverty and adversity. Because she had much lighter skin, this fact affected how people in the civil rights world perceived her. Yet, she never wavered in her principles. Civil rights leaders initially shied away from promoting her as a representative of the movement due to these societal factors.
Colvin’s act of rebellion to profile happened on March 2, 1955. When the bus driver told her to move, she refused. Inspired, she was filled with a sense of spirit and purpose from the great abolitionists in history that she had learned about in school.
“I felt that I had Harriet Tubman on one shoulder, Sojourner Truth on the other, and history had me glued to the seat.” – Claudette Colvin
Her arrest became a focal point of the civil rights movement. For decades, Colvin lived in relative obscurity after her act of defiance. Later, she became a key witness in the Browder v. Gayle case, which successfully tackled the city’s Jim Crow bus policies. This precedent-setting case eventually resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 1956 that segregation in public transit was unconstitutional.
Along with her professional accomplishments, Colvin dealt with a lot of personal tragedy. When arrested, she subsequently got pregnant as the result of what she characterized as statutory rape by a married man. She later worked as a caregiver and nurse’s aide. Alongside these professional accomplishments, she dealt with the realities of raising her children as a single mom.
In the last few years, Colvin had her juvenile arrest record expunged. That milestone finally brought her widespread recognition for her early work in the civil rights movement. Fred Gray, a movement attorney, represented Colvin and other major figures in the movement. He underscored her important role in their joint work.
“I don’t mean to take anything away from Mrs. Parks, but Claudette gave all of us the moral courage to do what we did.” – Fred Gray