That’s the popular narrative when stories are told. Most people have never heard of Claudette Colvin, a forgotten footnote in history.
She played a major role in the 1955 boycott as well, but her contribution goes largely unnoticed. Colvin was 15 years old when she refused to give up her seat, and she did it nine months before Parks.
What makes Colvin’s part so significant is that her defiance led the to the federal lawsuit that ended the Montgomery boycott and segregation on buses a year later in that city, the state of Alabama and the country.
She was among four women — the others were Susie McDonald, Aurelia Browder and Mary Louise Smith — who had been mistreated on buses. They agreed to be plaintiffs in Browder vs. Gayle, the case challenging city and state segregation laws on transportation.
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