Claudette Colvin is a retired nurse aide who was an American pioneer in the civil rights movement in the 1950's. She refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a crowded, segregated bus and was arrested at the age of 15. This occurred nine months before a similar incident involving Rosa Parks. She was one of four plaintiffs in the first federal court case, Browder v. Gayle. This case challenged bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama and the case went to the Supreme Court on appeal by the state. The Supreme Court affirmed the order to Montgomery and the state of Alabama to end bus segregation. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was called off a short time later. Colvin was a member of the NAACP Youth Council at the time and had been learning about the civil rights movement. She was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Medal of Freedom in 1990.