Bulldog

     While many people believe that Rose Parks was the first black woman to refuse to give up her seat, that simply isn’t true. Claudette Colvin was the first, refusing to give up her seat just nine months before Parks, and doing so at the age of fifteen.

     Colvin had boarded the Montgomery bus on March 2, 1995. The white section of the bus was filled when a white woman boarded, so the driver told Colvin’s row to stand so the woman could sit. 

     Colvin refused to get up from her seat and had to be pulled off the bus by two police officers. Actual accounts vary on how she acted while being arrested. 

     While some of her classmates claim she fought the cops, Colvin herself says that she went limp and didn't fight back in fear of the cops hurting her. Some sources may say that Colvin was pregnant during the time of her arrest, though this rumor is false. Though Colvin had discovered she was pregnant the summer of that year, she was not during the initial arrest on the bus.

     Claudette Colvin made the same stand Rosa Parks did nine months earlier, but is hardly remembered for it. 

     Colvin and Parks even knew each other, Parks would often let Colvin stay overnight at her house. They both laid the road for civil rights activism in Alabama, working together to get rid of segregation. 

     Both women are incredibly pivotal figures in the civil rights movement and deserve to be remembered for their activism.