Claudette Colvin was born on Sept. 5, 1939, in Montgomery, Ala. She was born to Mary Jane Garson and C.P. Austin, but Mary Ann and Q.P. adopted her. She grew up in the segregated south, opening her eyes early to the humiliation and violence Black people faced under Jim Crow laws.
She attended Booker T. Washington High School, a school for African American students. Colvin studied hard in hopes of becoming a lawyer. After school on March 2, 1955, 15-year-old Colvin was taking a segregated bus home. It was an average bus ride until the bus driver approached her. She was instructed to give up her seat to a white passenger, but Colvin refused to move.
She continued to refuse to move after two police officers boarded and ordered her to move. Those officers then removed her from the bus.
Colvin stayed seated out of protest. Her action was civil disobedience against racism and segregated busing. She had spent a week in February studying Black History with a teacher that had lectured about the impacts of Black Americans and injustices of the South. Colvin had also recently written a paper on the problems of segregation in downtown Montgomery.
After being detained, Colvin stated that she didn’t fight back. When she was put in the patrol car, the officers began making inappropriate comments about her body before taking her back to the station.
Her case caught the interest of many activists and groups in the area, including Rosa Parks. Parks began raising money towards the case. Stacks of letters and donations attributed to Colvin flooded her home.
Colvin’s case went to trial in May 1955. She was charged with disturbing the peace, breaking segregation laws and assaulting officers. The first two charges were dropped, but the last charge remained. This prevented a potential appeal that could challenge segregation laws.
That summer, Colvin continued her participation in the NAACP Youth Council, an organization that she joined shortly before her arrest. Parks was also an adult leader within the council. The two remained very close. Colvin would stay the night at Parks apartment if she worried about not being able to make a meeting.
”She knew exactly how I liked my coffee and fixed me peanut butter and Ritz crackers, but she didn’t say much at all,” Colvin said in an interview with NPR.
Parks made Colvin secretary of the council that same summer to help promote Colvin’s drive and leadership skills.
Colvin would challenge segregated busing later in her life as well. Colvin would become a plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle, which was filed in February 1956 during the mass boycotting of buses that would later lead to desegregated buses.
Colvin did not finish her senior year of high school, but she did attend Alabama State Teachers College for one year before dropping out. She then moved to New York in the 1950s, where she would work as a nurse’s aid for 35 years.
Colvin received several awards later in her life. She was the first recipient of Be The Light’s Award for Social Justice in 2019 and the Women of SCLC MLK Drum Major for Peace and Justice Award in 1996. Her criminal record was also expunged on Nov. 21, 2021.
On Jan. 13, 2026, the Claudette Colvin Foundation revealed on their website that Colvin had passed. There was no cause stated, but she was already in hospice care.
Despite her death, the Claudette Colvin Foundation still seeks to spread Colvin’s legacy as many people also seek to preserve her activism.
Colvin published a children’s book titled “Claudette Colvin: I Want Freedom Now!” with the help of author Phillip Hoose. The picture book recounts her views on the Jim Crow south as she aged as well as her experience on the bus back in 1955. Hoose had also written another book on Colvin back in 2010, “Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice.” The book received the Newbery Honor Award and National Book Award.
Even though Colvin has passed, American citizens still reap the benefits of her work to this day. She sparked the controversy that would later lead to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, helping open up buses to all races. Colvin also fostered activism and leadership in youth at a very young age. She demonstrates to young activists that it is never too soon to start standing up for your rights, even through minor acts of civil disobedience.
