Claudette Colvin: Civil rights icon who refused to move seats on segregated bus dies at 86
US civil rights pioneer dies aged 86
- Civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin, who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in 1955, has died at the age of 86.
- Her act of defiance in Montgomery, Alabama, on 2 March 1955, occurred months before Rosa Parks' more widely recognised stand.
- Then-15-year-old Colvin was arrested for violating segregation laws and later became a named plaintiff in the landmark lawsuit that outlawed racial segregation on Montgomery’s public transport system.
- Black leaders initially did not publicise her actions, opting instead to support Rosa Parks as a legal test case.
- Colvin later moved to New York City, where she worked as a nurse's aide for 35 years, and her arrest record was expunged in 2021.