Claudette Colvin (b. 1939) was a pioneer of the African American Civil Rights Movement. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in segregated Montgomery, Alabama, nine months prior to Rosa Parks.
The story of Claudette Colvin has largely gone unnoticed, but it was her act of civil disobedience that lead to the desegregation of the buses in Montgomery, Alabama and eventually the United States.
Most people know about Rosa Parks and the 1955 Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott. But nine months before Parks sat down and refused to move, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on the same bus system. She was one of a number of women who refused to give up their seats in protest of Jim Crow segregation laws.
Claudette Colvin (b. 1939) was a pioneer of the African American Civil Rights Movement. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in segregated Montgomery, Alabama, nine months prior to Rosa Parks.
The story of Claudette Colvin has largely gone unnoticed, but it was her act of civil disobedience that lead to the desegregation of the buses in Montgomery, Alabama and eventually the United States.
Most people know about Rosa Parks and the 1955 Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott. But nine months before Parks sat down and refused to move, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on the same bus system. She was one of a number of women who refused to give up their seats in protest of Jim Crow segregation laws.
