Honoring the Civil Rights Legacy of Claudette Colvin

Jessica Johnson
Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:35:33 -0800
Opinion

When I read the news of civil rights activist Claudette Colvin passing away this month, I looked at a list of other civil rights visionaries who have died who were, like Colvin, not as well known. This includes Autherine Lucy, the University of Alabama's first Black student; Lucille Times, who participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which catapulted a young Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to national leadership; and Myrna Carter Jackson, who actively protested racial injustice in Birmingham. Alabama was certainly one of the most significant battleground states of the civil rights movement, and the courage of these women, who put their lives on the line to fight for racial equality, was critical to ending the longstanding Jim Crow segregation laws. Following MLK Day, King's daughter, Dr. Bernice King, said in an Atlanta television news interview that young people need to know about those who labored in the movement like her father. Colvin, Times and Jackson are three unsung civil rights pioneers whose stories should be shared.

Colvin died on Jan. 13, and many news outlets mentioned her refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus at just 15 years old in 1955. Colvin's individual protest occurred on March 2, 1955, preceding Rosa Parks' refusal to relinquish her seat to a White passenger later in December. Parks has served as a centerpiece of civil rights history in schools for decades, while Colvin has been silently archived. I had the opportunity to study Colvin further when I took a history course on African American women during my graduate school years at Ohio State University. "The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson" was one of the books assigned for me to read. I've always thought these women who were tirelessly working in the background exemplified true resilience and grace in the battle against hardened Southern racism. I found Colvin's story especially intriguing because she was a few months older than my mother. My mother grew up in Athens, Georgia, and as she endured segregation during her youth, she always believed that Athens was not quite as bad as Montgomery and Birmingham. News of Colvin's protest did not travel as quickly to Athens, and as major events in 1955 were propelling the movement that Dr. King would eventually lead, the main story that shook Black communities throughout the South that year was the brutal murder of Emmett Till in Drew, Mississippi.

Colvin's place in history, however, shows the momentous impact one can make by simply standing up for what is right and just. Many years later, she would share in interviews what motivated her to resist that day as she took the bus home from school. She had been learning about slavery during what was called "Negro History Week" back then, and she found boldness in the defiance of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. In the book "Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice," written by Phillip Hoose and published in 2009 when Colvin was 69 years old, she recalled the disdainful manner in which the bus driver described her to the police: "The motorman pointed at me. I heard him say, 'That's nothing new. ... I've had trouble with that "thing" before.' He called me a 'thing.' ... I knew I was talking back to a white policeman, but I had had enough." Imagine being insulted as "a thing" from someone whose soul was stained with racial hatred. Colvin mentioned that she started to fear when the police pulled her from the bus and arrested her, but she drew strength from her faith in Christ, reciting The Lord's Prayer and the 23 Psalm. Colvin was definitely walking through a "valley of the shadow of death," as Psalm 23:4 states, but she knew that God was with her. In saying the Lord's Prayer, she demonstrated at a young age an understanding of the Christian precept of forgiving "trespasses," the sins your enemies commit against you. Colvin firmly believed that her part in the civil rights struggle was "mapped out" and "planned by God."
Updated: Fri Jan 23, 2026

When I read the news of civil rights activist Claudette Colvin passing away this month, I looked at a list of other civil rights visionaries who have died who were, like Colvin, not as well known. This includes Autherine Lucy, the University of Alabama's first Black student; Lucille Times, who participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which catapulted a young Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to national leadership; and Myrna Carter Jackson, who actively protested racial injustice in Birmingham. Alabama was certainly one of the most significant battleground states of the civil rights movement, and the courage of these women, who put their lives on the line to fight for racial equality, was critical to ending the longstanding Jim Crow segregation laws. Following MLK Day, King's daughter, Dr. Bernice King, said in an Atlanta television news interview that young people need to know about those who labored in the movement like her father. Colvin, Times and Jackson are three unsung civil rights pioneers whose stories should be shared.

Colvin died on Jan. 13, and many news outlets mentioned her refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus at just 15 years old in 1955. Colvin's individual protest occurred on March 2, 1955, preceding Rosa Parks' refusal to relinquish her seat to a White passenger later in December. Parks has served as a centerpiece of civil rights history in schools for decades, while Colvin has been silently archived. I had the opportunity to study Colvin further when I took a history course on African American women during my graduate school years at Ohio State University. "The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson" was one of the books assigned for me to read. I've always thought these women who were tirelessly working in the background exemplified true resilience and grace in the battle against hardened Southern racism. I found Colvin's story especially intriguing because she was a few months older than my mother. My mother grew up in Athens, Georgia, and as she endured segregation during her youth, she always believed that Athens was not quite as bad as Montgomery and Birmingham. News of Colvin's protest did not travel as quickly to Athens, and as major events in 1955 were propelling the movement that Dr. King would eventually lead, the main story that shook Black communities throughout the South that year was the brutal murder of Emmett Till in Drew, Mississippi.

Colvin's place in history, however, shows the momentous impact one can make by simply standing up for what is right and just. Many years later, she would share in interviews what motivated her to resist that day as she took the bus home from school. She had been learning about slavery during what was called "Negro History Week" back then, and she found boldness in the defiance of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. In the book "Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice," written by Phillip Hoose and published in 2009 when Colvin was 69 years old, she recalled the disdainful manner in which the bus driver described her to the police: "The motorman pointed at me. I heard him say, 'That's nothing new. ... I've had trouble with that "thing" before.' He called me a 'thing.' ... I knew I was talking back to a white policeman, but I had had enough." Imagine being insulted as "a thing" from someone whose soul was stained with racial hatred. Colvin mentioned that she started to fear when the police pulled her from the bus and arrested her, but she drew strength from her faith in Christ, reciting The Lord's Prayer and the 23 Psalm. Colvin was definitely walking through a "valley of the shadow of death," as Psalm 23:4 states, but she knew that God was with her. In saying the Lord's Prayer, she demonstrated at a young age an understanding of the Christian precept of forgiving "trespasses," the sins your enemies commit against you. Colvin firmly believed that her part in the civil rights struggle was "mapped out" and "planned by God."

As Colvin's passing made national headlines, hopefully, more young people will learn about her bravery, faith and determination to fight injustice. Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed perfectly summed up Colvin's legacy by stating that she "helped lay the legal and moral foundation for the movement that would change America."