Claudette Colvin, who at 15 refused to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus in March 1955, died Jan. 13 at age 86 of natural causes. Her arrest helped set the stage for Browder v. Gayle, the 1956 Supreme Court case that struck down bus segregation in Alabama. In 2021 she won expungement of her juvenile record. Colvin is survived by her son Randy, sisters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren; funeral plans will be announced.
Claudette Colvin, Civil Rights Trailblazer Who Refused a Bus Seat at 15, Dies at 86
AP Photo/Julie JacobsonClaudette Colvin speaking on Feb. 5, 2009 in New York
Claudette Colvin, a pioneering figure in the American civil rights movement who refused to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus at age 15, died on the morning of Jan. 13 at 86 of natural causes, her family spokesman Ashley D. Roseboro confirmed.
Dudley M. Brooks/The The Washington Post via GettyClaudette Colvin on April 7, 1998
Early Act of Defiance
On March 2, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, 15-year-old Colvin declined to yield her seat after a bus driver complained that two Black girls were sitting near two White girls. While one girl moved toward the back, Colvin remained seated and was arrested — an act of resistance that occurred nine months before Rosa Parks' more widely known protest.
Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock PhotoClaudette Colvin as a child
"I said, 'I'm not getting up,'" Colvin later told reporters. "It felt as though Harriet Tubman's hands were pushing me down on one shoulder, and Sojourner Truth was pushing down on another. History had me glued to the seat."
Legal Fight and National Impact
After her arrest Colvin was made a ward of the state and placed on indefinite probation. She continued to play an important role in the movement: she joined three other Black women — Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald and Mary Louise Smith — as plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, the federal case that successfully challenged bus segregation in Alabama. In 1956 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation on Alabama's public buses was unconstitutional, a legal victory that helped bring an end to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and further eroded the "separate but equal" doctrine.
Craig Barritt/GettyClaudette Colvin at the 2020 Embrace Ambition Summit by the Tory Burch Foundation on March 05, 2020
Later Years and Legacy
Decades later, in 2021, an Alabama family court judge granted Colvin's petition to expunge her juvenile record. Her family says they plan to preserve her legacy through the Claudette Colvin Foundation. Beyond her role in history, loved ones remember her as a mother and grandmother.
Colvin is survived by her son Randy, her sisters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren; her older son Raymond died in 1993. Funeral arrangements will be announced by the family and are expected to be held in Birmingham, Alabama.
Source note: Family spokesman Ashley D. Roseboro provided the cause of death and family statements.
Help us improve.
