I 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 COLVINBeing dragged off that bus was worth it just to see Barack Obama become president, because so many others gave their lives and didn’t get to see it, and I thank God for letting me see it.
More Claudette Colvin Quotes
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When our founding fathers drafted the Constitution and Bill of Rights, black people weren’t even considered human.
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I was ostracized by my community.
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There were many African Americans – many, many stories similar to my story.
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I 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.
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Rosa Parks wasn’t the first one to rebel against the segregated seats. I was the first one.
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That was worse than stealing, you know, talking back to a white person.
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I was about four years old the first time I ever saw what happened when you acted up to whites.
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As 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.
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New York is a completely different culture to Montgomery, Alabama.
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The light-skinned girls always thought they were better looking. So did the teachers, too. That meant most of the dark complexion ones didn’t like themselves.
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What do we have to do to make God love us?’ I always grew up with that. I always used to go around thinking that. ‘God loved the white people better. He must’ve. That’s why he made them white.’
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Young people think Rosa Parks just sat down on a bus and ended segregation, but that wasn’t the case at all.
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I’ve always told my children that once they go out into the world, they must have two heads and two minds: one to keep grounded, the other to deal with corporate America.
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For 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.
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When you’ve been abused daily and you see people humiliated and harassed, you just get tired of it.
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