Everyone knows the story of Rosa Parks refusing to get up from her seat, and how her actions alone helped with many civil rights movements back then, but not many people know of Claudette Colvin, who had refused to give up her seat, nine months before Rosa Parks did.
On March 2th, 1955, Claudette Colvin was 15 years old when she was first refused. On the way home, when the white section was full, her other three classmates all got up when told, but Colvin just continued to sit, even while being yelled at.
“We’d been studying the Constitution…I knew I had rights.” Colvin said in an interview with NPR reporters.
Colvin was forcefully and roughly arrested, which causes outrage in the black community and civil rights movement. Many spectator claimed that she “fought like a little tigress”.
Although there were many black citizens who rebelled who got fined, Colvin was the first to have such a legal rebellion. Some can even could say she set a big things off.
In an interview with Colvin, an NPR reporter asked why she was so little known and how Rosa Parks got more fame.
”She was an adult They didnt think teenagers would be reliable.” Colvin said.
Colvin unfortunately passed away on January 13th, 2026, but even with her being gone, during this month of black history, its important to talk about the forgotten figures in Black History.
“All I remember is that I was not going to walk off this bus voluntarily” Colvin said.
