Overview
- The Claudette Colvin Legacy Foundation announced she died in Texas at age 86.
- In March 1955, she was arrested in Montgomery after refusing to give up her seat under segregation rules.
- Her act came months before Rosa Parks’ protest and became an early catalyst for the civil rights movement.
- She was an original plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle, argued by civil-rights lawyer Fred Gray, which ended bus segregation in Montgomery.
- Largely overlooked for decades, she later moved to New York and worked as a nursing assistant, gaining renewed recognition late in life.