Cathleen Small

Claudette Colvin Cathleen Small

Before there was Rosa Parks, there was Claudette Colvin. This fearless black teenager, who studied civil rights at her segregated high school in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white person. She felt and believed it violated her rights as a United States citizen. Colvin began a movement that led to the Montgomery bus boycott, a pivotal event in the civil rights movement. Fast facts and sidebars support the narrative and provide intriguing asides about the quiet girl who sat for what she believed in.