Claudette Colvin: Early Civil Rights Trailblazer Who Preceded Rosa Parks Dies at 86
Claudette Colvin, 15, refused to give up her Montgomery, Alabama bus seat in 1955 and became a plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle, helping spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott that advanced the civil rights movement. Although Rosa Parks’ stand became the lasting symbol, Colvin’s bravery provided crucial momentum for activists and later earned recognition after decades of obscurity; she had her juvenile arrest record expunged in 2021 and died Jan. 13 at 86 in hospice in Texas.