“History had me glued to the seat,” she says, tapping her shoulders. “It felt as if Harriet Tubman’s hand was pushing me down on the one shoulder, and Sojourner Truth’s hand was pushing me down on the other. Learning about those two women gave me the courage to remain seated that day.”

The Department of African American Studies honors Claudette Colvin for emphasizing her rights and fighting against bus segregation laws.

Noted as the "one before Rosa Parks", Colvin, aged 15 and pregnant, was arraigned after refusing to give her seat away to a white woman on a segregated bus, but her representation did not align with Black civic leaders' agenda setting against bus segregation. On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld Browder v. Gayle where Colvin was a plaintiff and legally ended racial discrimination on public transportation and the busing system.