Claudette Colvin, whose 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama, bus helped spark the modern civil rights movement, has died. She was 86.
Colvin was arrested months before Rosa Parks gained international fame before refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus.
A bus driver called police on March 2, 1955, to complain that two Black girls were sitting near two White girls in violation of segregation laws. One of the Black girls moved toward the rear when asked, a police report said, but Colvin refused and was arrested. She was 15 at the time.
"Several people were arrested for declining to give up their seats on Montgomery buses. Maxwell Air Force Base employee Viola White was arrested in 1944, and Mary Wingfield was arrested in 1949. Teenager Mary Louise Smith was arrested in October 1954. In March 1955, Claudette Colvin, a fifteen-year-old student at Booker T. Washington Magnet High School, was also arrested. Other arrests included Aurelia Browder on April 29, 1955, and Susie McDonald on October 21, 1955.
Supreme Court ordered the integration of Montgomery’s buses on December 20, 1956"
12 years of arresting black women before anything changed. 12 fucking years.