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last mo.

Claudette Colvin, Pioneering Civil-Rights Figure Who Defied Bus Segregation at 15, Dies at 86

Her early defiance helped launch the litigation that dismantled bus segregation across the South.

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L'Afro-américaine Claudette Colvin, pionnière de la lutte pour les droits civiques, lors d'une conférence de presse tenue après que Mme Colvin a déposé une requête pour l'effacement de son casier judiciaire de mineure auprès du tribunal pour enfants du comté de Montgomery, le 26 octobre 2021 à Montgomery, en Alabama

Overview

  • Her foundation confirmed her death on Tuesday at age 86, calling her a civil-rights pioneer.
  • At 15, she refused to surrender her seat on a Montgomery bus on March 2, 1955, was arrested, pleaded not guilty, and was convicted on several charges.
  • The NAACP used her case alongside three others in a federal challenge that produced a June 5, 1956 ruling against bus segregation.
  • The U.S. Supreme Court upheld that decision on November 13, 1956, ending legally sanctioned segregation on Southern public transit.
  • Movement leaders sidelined her after she became pregnant, and she later moved to New York, worked as a nurse aide, and was allowed to have her juvenile record expunged in 2021.