Claudette Colvin, 86, who refused to give up her bus seat in 1955, dies

Claudette Colvin, whose 1955 refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus became an early flashpoint in the civil rights movement, died on Tuesday in Texas. She was 86, and her death in hospice care was confirmed by Roseboro Holdings, which represents the Claudette Colvin Foundation; the company did not say where in Texas she died.

Ms. Colvin had lived for many years in the Bronx. At 15, Ms. Colvin stayed seated when a driver ordered her and other Black riders to move to the back of a segregated bus on March 2, 1955. She was arrested, dragged off the bus and convicted in juvenile court; two charges were dropped on appeal but a charge of assaulting an officer was upheld, resulting in a fine and probation.

She later became a star witness in Browder v. Gayle, the federal suit whose 1956 decision, affirmed by the Supreme Court, helped end segregation on Montgomery buses and nationwide on public transportation. Her act was overshadowed months later by Rosa Parks’s similar arrest, and local leaders at the time chose Parks as their symbol, Ms.

Colvin later said, because she was considered “too dark-skinned and too poor” to win crucial support. Ms. Colvin was not pregnant at the time of her 1955 arrest, though she became pregnant later that year. She moved to the Bronx in 1958, worked as a domestic and for about 30 years as a nurse, and for much of her life spoke little about her role in the movement.

Key Topics

Politics, Claudette Colvin, Browder V. Gayle, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Rosa Parks, Fred Gray