Find out “What Is Claudette Colvin Religion And Ethnicity?” Driven by a deep sense of justice rooted in her Christian faith, Claudette Colvin, a pioneering figure in the civil rights movement, challenged social norms and segregation long before Rosa Parks.
In the 1950s American civil rights movement, Claudette Colvin, a former nurse assistant, emerged as a trailblazer. At the age of 15, on March 2, 1955, she was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for defying segregation on a crowded bus by refusing to give up her seat to a white woman.
This occurred nine months before the more widely known incident that sparked the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, led by Rosa Parks, the secretary of the local NAACP branch.
In the first federal court lawsuit challenging bus segregation in the city, Browder v. Gayle, filed by civil rights attorney Fred Grey on February 1, 1956, Colvin was one of the four plaintiffs.
Claudette Colvin: Quick Facts Wiki/Bio
Attribute | Description |
---|---|
Name | Claudette Colvin |
Occupation | Civil Rights Activist |
Birthdate | September 5, 1939 |
Birthplace | Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. |
Famous Act | Refusing to give up her bus seat for a white passenger in Alabama in 1955 |
Legal Case | Became one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, leading to the end of Montgomery’s segregated bus system |
Legacy | Her story largely forgotten until 2009 when a book about her life won the National Book Award; petitioned to have her record expunged in 2021 |