In Memoriam: Claudette Colvin

Sept. 15, 1939 – Jan. 13, 2026

Let us take a moment to mourn the death two weeks ago and to honor the life of Claudette Colvin, her bravery, and her inestimable contribution to the history of civil rights brought to us through her demand for justice and her long life of humble service to others. At the age of fifteen, on her way home from school, Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her set on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus on March 2, 1955 – nine months before Rosa Parks suffered the same indignity. (This event and Colvin’s inclusion in the landmark Supreme Court case Browder v. Gayle are summarized in the PRP Blog for March 2, 2025.) As the Montgomery lawyer Fred Gray wrote:

“I believe that Claudette’s act gave Mrs. Parks the moral courage to do what she later did. . . . If Claudette Colvin had not done what she did on March 2, 1955, Mrs. Parks may never ha[ve] done what she did on December 1, 1955. If Mrs. Parks had given up her seat on December 1, 1955, she would never have been arrested; there would never have been a trial on December 5, 1955; no beginning of the Montgomery Bus Boycott; no mass meeting at Holt Street Baptist Church and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would not have been introduced to the nation on December 5, 1955. The whole history of the civil rights movement may have been different but for Claudette.”

In 1960, Colvin moved to New York City, where she had a long career as a nurse’s aide in a Manhattan nursing home. In 2023 she and her family established the Claudette Colvin Foundation “to inspire and recognize youth and young adults for their service in significantly improving life in communities across America” (https://www.claudettecolvinfoundation.com/). I am honored that she was kind enough to write an evocative blurb for Protesting with Rosa Parks.