Final answer:
Claudette Colvin is a significant figure in American civil rights history, famous for resisting bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, ahead of Rosa Parks. She played an integral role in the court case that ended bus segregation. She was born on September 5, 1939, in Montgomery, Alabama.
Step-by-step explanation:
Claudette Colvin is a significant figure in American civil rights history. Born on September 5, 1939, in Montgomery, Alabama, Colvin played a pivotal role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was a crucial event in the civil rights movement.
At just 15 years old, on March 2, 1955, Claudette Colvin defied segregation laws by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus, an act of resistance that took place nine months before Rosa Parks' similar and more widely recognized act of defiance. Because of Colvin's age and social status, her case did not become as renowned as Parks', but she was one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, the court case that led to the Supreme Court’s ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional.
Her life and legacy remind us of the important role that young people and everyday individuals have played in the fight for civil rights and social justice.
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