By: CA Staff Writer | Feb 5, 2025
Clarksdale, Mississippi– When discussing the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks is often credited as the first person to refuse to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. However, months before Parks’ famous act of defiance, a 15-year-old girl named Claudette Colvin took a similar stand—but her story was largely forgotten.
On March 2, 1955, Claudette Colvin was riding a city bus in Montgomery when the driver demanded that she give up her seat for a white passenger. Unlike most Black riders, who complied out of fear of arrest or violence, Colvin refused. She was quickly arrested and dragged off the bus in handcuffs. At the time, segregation laws required Black passengers to vacate their seats if the “white section” was full.
Colvin’s courageous act happened nine months before Rosa Parks’ more widely known protest. However, civil rights leaders decided not to rally around her case, partly because she was a teenager and later became pregnant. They believed that Parks, an older and highly respected woman, would be a better symbol for the movement.
Despite being overlooked, Colvin’s actions were instrumental in the fight against segregation. She later became one of the key plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, the landmark Supreme Court case that ultimately ruled bus segregation unconstitutional in 1956.
For many years, Claudette Colvin’s story remained in the shadows of history. However, in recent decades, she has received more recognition for her bravery. In 2021, at the age of 82, she successfully had her juvenile arrest record expunged, finally clearing her name.
Colvin’s defiance at just 15 years old helped lay the groundwork for the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the larger Civil Rights Movement. Though she did not receive the immediate recognition she deserved, her fearless stand against injustice proved that even the youngest voices can spark change.
