Claudette Colvin was the first person to be arrested for resisting the Montgomery bus segregation laws. Inspired by fellow Black women like Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, the 15-year old, at the time, “just couldn’t move. History had me glued to the seats,” she told NPR.

It’s no coincidence that Colvin knew Rosa Parks very well. They both went to Martin Luther King Jr.’s church. Nine months after the incident, Parks stayed seated on her bus ride, despite being asked to stand by the bus driver and became one of the faces of the civil rights movement. Colvin understood why, because Parks was already doing work with the NAACP and Colvin was a pregnant teenager.

While rejected by the NAACP, Colvin did ultimately help end segregation on the bus. She was asked by the NAACP to testify in Browder v. Gayle, and the supreme court ruled to end segregation laws on December 20, 1956.

Colvin was arrested and her life negatively changed because of her act of courage. She was labeled an outcast by her community and her parents feared for her life, staying up with a gun in case the KKK would target her.

While overlooked for her contribution to the civil rights movement, Colvin still gave others the courage to act and resist. Like her mother said after picking her up from the precinct, “Well, Claudette, you finally did it.”