Claudette Colvin, who refused to move seats on a segregated bus, dies aged 86

Claudette Colvin in 2009 (Julie Jacobson/PA)

Claudette Colvin, whose 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus helped spark the modern civil rights movement, has died aged 86.

Her death was announced on Tuesday by the Claudette Colvin Legacy Foundation. Ashley Roseboro of the Foundation said she died in Texas.

Colvin was arrested months before Rosa Parks gained international fame by refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus.

Claudette Colvin was arrested in 1955 when she was 15 (Vasha Hunt/AP)

A bus driver called police on March 2 1955 to complain that two black girls were sitting near two white girls in violation of segregation laws.

One of the black girls moved toward the rear when asked, a police report said, but Colvin refused and was arrested. She was 15 at the time.

Colvin became a named plaintiff in the landmark lawsuit that outlawed racial segregation on Montgomery’s buses.