At the age of 15, she tried to integrate the bus system and break down segregation
Creator
Amy French
Source
Image Source: Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times (left) The Montgomery Advertiser, via Melanie Kroupa Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux (right)
Birth Date
1939
Birthplace
Alabama, USA
Occupation
Nurse's aide
Biographical Text
Claudette Colvin was born in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1955, at age 15, she stood up against segregation by refusing to give up her seat on a bus. She was arrested on several charges, including violating the city's segregation laws. Her action took place nine months before Rosa Parks did the same thing.
Rosa Parks is best known for refusing to sit at the back of a segregated bus thus launching the Montgomery Bus Boycott. What made Rosa turn her attention to bus segregation? They were areas where black women were often harassed, beaten, or raped. Parks had campaigned since the early 1940s to end sexual assault against women. After her 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat, she fought the rest of her life to achieve civil rights and end violence towards women.
Bibliography
McGuire, Danielle. At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance--a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. New York: Knopf Press, 2010.