Archive · 24 Jan 2026
Claudette Colvin: Teen Activist Before Rosa Parks
Claudette Colvin was a 15-year-old girl who refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in 1955, before Rosa Parks did the same.
She was arrested and charged, but the NAACP thought she was too young to be a test case.
Instead, Rosa Parks became the face of the Montgomery bus boycott.
Colvin moved to New York and worked as a maid and nurse.
She later had her arrest record cleared.
Her story shows that many people fought for civil rights, not just the famous ones we often hear about.
Claudette Colvin refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger on 2 March 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks' similar act.
She was arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer, disturbing the peace, and violating a city race ordinance.
The NAACP thought Colvin was too young and immature to be a constitutional test case, so Rosa Parks was chosen instead.
In 1956, Colvin was one of four plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit that established the city's bus laws were unconstitutional.
Colvin moved to New York in 1958 and worked as a maid and nurse, speaking little about her past until the 1990s.
- Who
- Claudette Colvin, an African-American high-school student
- What
- Refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, nine months before Rosa Parks' similar act
- When
- 2 March 1955
- Where
- Montgomery, Alabama
- Why
- To protest against segregation and Jim Crow bus laws
- Birth Name
- Claudette Austin
- Birth Year
- 1939
- Location of Birth
- Rural Alabama
- Age at Bus Incident
- 15
- Date of Bus Incident
- 2 March 1955
- Charges Filed
- Assaulting a police officer, disturbing the peace, violating a city race ordinance
- Year of Federal Lawsuit
- 1956
- Year Moved to New York
- 1958
- Year Arrest Record Expunged
- 2021