I wanted the young African-American girls also on the bus to know that they had a right to be there, because they had paid their fare just like the white passengers.
CLAUDETTE COLVINI 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.
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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I sleep when the sleep comes down on me.
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I’d like my grandchildren to be able to see that their grandmother stood up for something, a long time ago.
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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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There were many African Americans – many, many stories similar to my story.
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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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I never swore when I was young.
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A 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.
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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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When I told my mother I was pregnant, I thought she was going to have a heart attack.
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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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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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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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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 COLVIN







