Overview
- Her death was announced Jan. 13 by the Claudette Colvin Legacy/Foundation, with spokesperson Ashley D. Roseboro confirming she died of natural causes in Texas.
- At 15, Colvin was arrested on March 2, 1955 in Montgomery after refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus, nine months before Rosa Parks.
- She served as one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, the lawsuit that led courts—upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court—to end bus segregation in Montgomery and influence public transport nationwide.
- Following her arrest, she was adjudicated a juvenile delinquent and placed on indefinite probation; a judge expunged her 1955 juvenile record in 2021.
- Colvin spent decades in relative obscurity working as a nursing aide before receiving wider recognition, including a National Book Award–winning 2009 biography and a Montgomery street renamed in her honor; memorial details will be announced later.