Being 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.
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.
More Claudette Colvin Quotes
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When I told my mother I was pregnant, I thought she was going to have a heart attack.
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I never swore when I was young.
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We were churchgoing people.
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I sleep when the sleep comes down on me.
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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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I left the South in 1963 and was living in Morristown, New Jersey, when the March on Washington took place, so I watched it on television instead.
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That was worse than stealing, you know, talking back to a white person.
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There were many African Americans – many, many stories similar to my story.
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A 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.
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New York is a completely different culture to Montgomery, Alabama.
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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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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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When our founding fathers drafted the Constitution and Bill of Rights, black people weren’t even considered human.
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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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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.
CLAUDETTE COLVIN