New York is a completely different culture to Montgomery, Alabama.
CLAUDETTE COLVINNew York is a completely different culture to Montgomery, Alabama.
CLAUDETTE COLVINI was about four years old the first time I ever saw what happened when you acted up to whites.
CLAUDETTE COLVINThere were many African Americans – many, many stories similar to my story.
CLAUDETTE COLVINWhen our founding fathers drafted the Constitution and Bill of Rights, black people weren’t even considered human.
CLAUDETTE COLVINI became aware of how the world is and how the white establishment plays black people against each other.
CLAUDETTE COLVINA lot of African American women wanted to emulate white women. But I said in my mind, rationally thinking, there is no way you are going to get your hair that straight, especially in the summer.
CLAUDETTE COLVINAs long as white people put people of color, African Americans and Latinos, in the same dispensable bag, and look at our children of color as insignificant and treat women of color as not as deserving of protection as white women, we will never achieve true equality.
CLAUDETTE COLVINThere was segregation everywhere. The churches, buses and schools were all segregated and you couldn’t even go into the same restaurants.
CLAUDETTE COLVINI always tell young people to hold on to their dreams. And sometimes you have to stand up for what you think is right even if you have to stand alone.
CLAUDETTE COLVINA lot has changed since I grew up, but there’s still a long way to go. I don’t think we can move forward with Donald Trump as the president. There’s a disconnect there. We don’t want to regress, we want progress.
CLAUDETTE COLVINI wanted to be an attorney. My mother would say I never stopped talking. I always had a lot of questions to ask, and I was never satisfied with the answer. A lot of things I wasn’t satisfied by.
CLAUDETTE COLVINThat was worse than stealing, you know, talking back to a white person.
CLAUDETTE COLVINWhen you’ve been abused daily and you see people humiliated and harassed, you just get tired of it.
CLAUDETTE COLVINFor African-Americans, it’s still going to be – some people say double hard – I’d say four times as hard. Be an opportunist. Take advantage of your resources, because the only way to win is with education, self-esteem, having value in yourself.
CLAUDETTE COLVINI lost most of my friends. Their parents had told them to stay away from me, because they said I was crazy, I was an extremist.
CLAUDETTE COLVINI’d like my grandchildren to be able to see that their grandmother stood up for something, a long time ago.
CLAUDETTE COLVIN