(Washington) Claudette Colvin, whose 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus helped spark the modern civil rights movement, is no more. She was 86 years old.
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Her death was announced Tuesday by the Claudette Colvin Foundation. Ashley D. Roseboro, a member of the organization, confirmed that she died of natural causes in Texas.
Mme Colvin, then 15, was arrested nine months before Rosa Parks gained international notoriety for also refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus.
Mme Colvin had boarded the bus on March 2, 1955, returning home from high school. The first rows were reserved for white passengers. She was seated in the back with other black passengers. When the section reserved for whites was full, the bus driver ordered the black passengers to give up their seats to the white passengers. Mme Colvin refused.
“I was determined to be free,” she said in 2021 about her refusal to give up her place.
“So that day, I wasn’t going to move,” she added. I told them the story had me in my seat. »
At the time of the arrest of Mme Colvin, frustration was growing over the treatment of black people on city buses. Another black teenager, Mary Louise Smith, was arrested and fined in October of that year for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger.
The arrest of local NAACP activist Rosa Parks on June 1er December 1955 was the trigger for the Montgomery bus boycott, which lasted a year. This boycott propelled the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to national prominence and is considered the starting point of the modern civil rights movement.
Mme Colvin was one of four plaintiffs in the historic lawsuit that banned racial segregation on Montgomery buses. His death comes just over a month after Montgomery celebrated 70e anniversary of the bus boycott.
Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said Mr.me Colvin “helped lay the legal and moral foundation of the movement that would change America.”
Claudette Colvin was never as famous as Mme Parks, and Mr. Reed said his courage “has been too often overlooked.”
“The life of Claudette Colvin reminds us that movements are not only the work of the most famous people, but also of those whose courage manifests itself early, quietly and at great personal sacrifice,” said Mr. Reed. His legacy inspires us to tell the full truth about our history and to honor every voice that helped tip the scales toward justice. »
In 2021, Mme Colvin filed a motion to have his criminal record expunged. A judge granted his request.
“If I am seeking to have my name cleared by the State, it is because I believe that this would show the current generation that progress is possible and that things are improving,” Ms.me Colvin at the time. This will inspire them to make the world a better place. »
