The Forgotten Civil Rights Figure Who Refused To Move Her Bus Seat Before Rosa Parks

Everybody knows about Rosa Parks’ bold move to stay seated in the whites-only section of the bus that fateful day in Montgomery, Alabama. However, far fewer people realize she wasn't actually the first to pull the move. Just nine months before, someone else was dragged off a bus by police for sitting in protest against segregation, but for some reason, history books didn't mention her name. The reason why only came out recently.

Teenage Passenger

Also from Montgomery, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin climbed aboard a bus on March 2, 1955, on her way home from school. The bus was fairly empty, and Colvin and several other Black students chose seats in the empty whites-only section. As more white passengers boarded, other Black passengers moved to the back. Not Claudette, though.

Remained Seated

When the driver shouted for her to stand up, she refused. There was an empty seat across from her that the white woman left standing in the aisle could have taken, and as Colvin recounted, “If she sat down in the same row as me, it meant I was as good as her." So, Colvin kept her seat despite the jeers flung at her. Then, the police were summoned.

Couldn't Get Up

As Colvin said in an NPR interview in 2009, at that moment on the bus, "My head was just too full of black history, you know, the oppression that we went through. It felt like Sojourner Truth was on one side pushing me down, and Harriet Tubman was on the other side of me pushing me down. I couldn't get up."

Knew Her Rights

Tears flowing, Colvin knew she had the right to remain seated. She just kept repeating, "It's my constitutional right to sit here as much as that lady. I paid my fare. It's my constitutional right," Colvin told NPR. Unfazed by her words, the police knocked the books from her hands and carried her away.