I’d like my grandchildren to be able to see that their grandmother stood up for something, a long time ago.
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.
More Claudette Colvin Quotes
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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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That was worse than stealing, you know, talking back to a white person.
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I sleep when the sleep comes down on me.
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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 never swore when I was young.
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There was segregation everywhere. The churches, buses and schools were all segregated and you couldn’t even go into the same restaurants.
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We were churchgoing people.
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I 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.
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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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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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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.
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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.
CLAUDETTE COLVIN