Claudette Colvin, who helped end racial segregation in the US by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person, has died. She was 86 years old.
Colvin's protest, which led to her arrest, took place in 1955 when she was just 15, living in Montgomery, Alabama. This bold act happened just nine months before Rosa Parks would famously make a similar stand, an event that sparked a boycott of the city's public transport and led to a landmark Supreme Court decision prohibiting racial discrimination.
While Colvin's arrest was largely overlooked for years, her story gained recognition beginning in 2009 with the release of a comprehensive book detailing her experience. A statement from the Claudette Colvin Legacy Foundation highlighted her legacy of courage that helped change the course of American history. One year after her arrest, her testimony contributed to the Supreme Court's ruling to end segregation on buses.
In an interview with the BBC in 2018, Colvin reflected on her emotions during the incident, expressing that she felt neither fear nor intimidation, but rather disappointment and anger at being treated unjustly. She was inspired by notable figures such as Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, stating, Whenever people ask me: 'Why didn't you get up?' I say it felt as though Harriet Tubman's hands were pushing me down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth's hands were pushing me down on the other shoulder. Following her activism, Colvin went on to have a distinguished career as a nurse in New York. According to reports, she passed away in Texas.
