Claudette Colvin

Claudette Colvin (September 5, 1939 – January 13, 2026) was an American civil rights activist and nurse. Colvin was known for being arrested on March 2, 1955, for not giving up her seat to a white woman. She was 15 years old when this happened.

1955 arrest and trial
Following her 1955 arrest, Colvin was put on trial on several charges including violating the segregation ordinance. The court found her guilty. She was beaten up and ridiculed by white people after the incident. Colvin was placed on probation. The leader of the church she attended, Reverend Johnson bailed her out. In 1956, about one year after Colvin refused to give up her seat, her lawyer, Fred Gray, filed the landmark federal lawsuit: Browder v Gayle.Anne Emanuel, Elbert Parr Tuttle: Chief Jurist of the Civil Rights Revolution (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2011), pp. 169–172 This case stopped segregation on public transportation in Montgomery Alabama. Claudette’s incident was before Rosa Parks even though she is not acknowledged much. Around this time, Colvin was getting involved in the Youth Council of Montgomery of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Even though she got a light sentence from the court, she was branded a troublemaker. She dropped out of college and could not find a job.

Personal life
She was born in Birmingham, Alabama. She grew up in Montgomery, Alabama. 

Colvin moved to New York City in 1958. There she worked as a nurse assistant in a nursing home while living there. Colvin retired in 2004.

Colvin died on January 13, 2026 while in hospice care in Texas at the age of 86.

 References 

Category:National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Category:1939 births
Category:2026 deaths
Category:American civil rights activists
Category:People from Birmingham, Alabama
Category:People from Montgomery, Alabama