This Day in History: 1955-03-02

Nine months before Rosa Parks famously refused to give up her bus seat and triggered the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott, 15-year old high school student Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. Colvin was arrested, charged with disturbing the peace, as well as assault and violating the segregation law. After her arrest, Claudette Colvin was one of the plaintiffs of the historic court case Browder v. Gayle, which ruled that segregation was illegal. The Supreme Court’s subsequent affirmation of the ruling officially led to the end of segregation. In the interim, Colvin’s actions inspired planning of Parks’s action and the bus boycott later that same year. Learn more.