Claudette Colvin passed away this week.

On March 2nd, 1955, she refused to give up her bus seat. This was nine months before Rosa Parks would become synonymous with the civil rights movement, sparking the first large-scale demonstration against segregation in the United States.

Claudette is part of a proud history of defiance and resistance, but was unfairly pushed aside by black leaders for being unmarried and pregnant during her defiant act, making her a less desirable public image for the civil rights movement.

When asked about her actions and how Rosa Parks was chosen over her as the face of the boycott, she said:

I feel very, very proud of what I did. I do feel like what I did was a spark and it caught on… I’m not disappointed. Let the people know Rosa Parks was the right person for the boycott. But also let them know that the attorneys took four other women to the Supreme Court to challenge the law that led to the end of segregation.

I wrote this puzzle a few years ago during my Eyes Open series. I constructed it in honor of the sixty-fifth anniversary of the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott. I wanted to highlight Parks, Colvin, and Pauli Murray, another woman who refused to be treated like a second-class citizen on a segregated bus.

I hope this puzzle serves to both engage you as a solver and encourage you to learn more about these events and those names that are often overshadowed or cast aside by history.

[Click this link to download a PDF of this puzzle.]