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.
Her death was announced Tuesday by the Claudette Colvin Legacy Foundation. Ashley D. Roseboro of the organization confirmed she died of natural causes in Texas.
Colvin, at age 15, was arrested nine months before Rosa Parks gained international fame for also refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus.
A bus driver called police on March 2, 1955, to complain that two Black girls were sitting near two white girls in violation of segregation laws. One of the Black girls moved toward the rear when asked, a police report said, but Colvin refused and was arrested.
At the time of Colvin's arrest, there was mounting frustration over how Black people were treated on the city bus system. The arrest of Parks, who was a local NAACP officer, on Dec. 1, 1955, became the final catalyst for the yearlong Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott propelled the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. into the national limelight and is considered the start of the modern civil rights movement.
Colvin became a named plaintiff in the landmark lawsuit that outlawed racial segregation on Montgomery’s buses.
"My mindset was on freedom," Colvin said in 2021 of her refusal to give up her seat.
“So I was not going to move that day,” she said. “I told them that history had me glued to the seat.”
Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said Colvin's action “helped lay the legal and moral foundation for the movement that would change America.”
Colvin was never as well-known as Parks, and Reed said her bravery “was too often overlooked.”
“Claudette Colvin’s life reminds us that movements are built not only by those whose names are most familiar, but by those whose courage comes early, quietly, and at great personal cost," Reed said. “Her legacy challenges us to tell the full truth of our history and to honor every voice that helped bend the arc toward justice.”
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