Claudette Colvin, Civil Rights Pioneer, Dead at 86

*Though her name is less widely known than Parks’, Colvin played a pivotal role in dismantling segregated public transportation in the United States, not only through her quiet act of defiance as a teenager, but through her involvement in the landmark Supreme Court case that ended Montgomery’s segregated bus system.

Claudette Colvin was born Sept. 5, 1939, in Montgomery. She attended the segregated Booker T. Washington High School and was active in the NAACP Youth Council, where she learned about civil rights.

At age 15 on March 2, 1955, Colvin refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus, leading to her arrest—an act predating Rosa Parks’ by nine months.

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