Pioneering Civil Rights Activist Claudette Colvin Passes Away at 86, Preceded Rosa Parks' Famous Bus Protest
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The 86-year-old trailblazer who challenged Alabama's bus segregation laws as a teenager in March 1955 has died, occurring nine months prior to Rosa Parks' widely recognized protest. Colvin later served as a key plaintiff and witness in the federal litigation that successfully dismantled Montgomery's discriminatory transit policies, with the Supreme Court ruling against bus segregation in 1956.
Civil Rights Trailblazer Claudette Colvin Passes Away at 86
The civil rights movement has lost one of its earliest heroes with the passing of Claudette Colvin at age 86. According to reports, Colvin made a courageous stand against segregation that would help spark a nationwide movement for equality.
At just 15 years old in March 1955, Colvin was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger. Her brave act of defiance occurred nine months before Rosa Parks' more widely known protest on the same bus system.
Sources indicate that Colvin's arrest helped launch what Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. described as a pivotal period for Black Americans in Montgomery. She later served as a key plaintiff and star witness in the federal lawsuit that challenged bus segregation laws.
The case ultimately reached the Supreme Court, which ordered an end to bus segregation in 1956. Despite her crucial role, Colvin remained largely overshadowed by other activists for decades, working as a nurse's aide before receiving recognition later in life through historians and writers who documented her contributions to the movement.