Claudette Colvin, an unsung hero of the civil rights movement, died Tuesday at the age of 86.

Colvin passed away while under hospice care in Texas, according to the Claudette Colvin Legacy Foundation.

"It is with profound sadness that the Claudette Colvin Foundation and family announce the passing of Claudette Colvin, a beloved mother, grandmother, and civil rights pioneer," a statement from the foundation reads. "She leaves behind a legacy of courage that helped change the course of American history."

"She was the heart of our family, wise, resilient, and grounded in faith," the statement reads. "We will remember her laughter, her sharp wit, and her unwavering belief in justice and human dignity."

Before she was ever mentioned in a history book (if you were lucky enough to learn about her at all), Colvin was just a teenager trying to get home from school.

In March 1955, Colvin, then a 15-year-old junior at a Montgomery high school, refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. Police dragged her off the bus, handcuffed her, and arrested her.

Her arrest placed her at the center of the fight against bus segregation nine months before Rosa Parks’ more widely known act of resistance.

Colvin later became one of the primary plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, the federal case that ultimately desegregated buses in Montgomery and across Alabama. Still, she remained on the margins of the movement she helped push forward.

In 2021, Colvin spoke with CBS Mornings about her record being expunged and how it would affect her grandchildren.

"Because when they go out into the world, the struggle of being African American is still going on," Colvin said. "So I want my grandchildren to know that their grandmother stood up for something when she realized that she was an American at a very early age, and she wanted equal rights, just as those other students and all of the other bus audience and all of the other people in Montgomery — that's what I want my grandchildren to know."