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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.

Claudette Colvin

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More Claudette Colvin Quotes

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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.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  AchievementChildrenEqualityPersonProtectionTrueWhite
• 

  I was about four years old the first time I ever saw what happened when you acted up to whites.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  ActMyselfTimeWhite
• 

  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.’

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  GodGrow UpLovePeopleWhite
• 

  I became aware of how the world is and how the white establishment plays black people against each other.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  BlackEstablishmentMyselfPeopleWorld
• 

  We were churchgoing people.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
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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.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  ChangeGrow UpMyselfThinking
• 

  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
  DifficultEducationOpportunityPeopleValueWinYourself
• 

  That was worse than stealing, you know, talking back to a white person.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  PersonTalkWhiteWorst
• 

  I’d like my grandchildren to be able to see that their grandmother stood up for something, a long time ago.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  FamilyMyselfSee
• 

  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.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  LiveMyselfPlace
• 

  Young people think Rosa Parks just sat down on a bus and ended segregation, but that wasn’t the case at all.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  EndPeopleYoung
• 

  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
  DreamMyselfPeopleRightThinkingYoung
• 

  I was ostracized by my community.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  CommunityMyselfOppression
• 

  When I told my mother I was pregnant, I thought she was going to have a heart attack.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  HeartMomMyselfPregnant
• 

  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.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  MomMyselfSatisfactionStop
• 

  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.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  DarknessPeopleSkin
• 

  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
  GodLiveThankfulWorth
• 

  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.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  HairsMyselfWomen
• 

  I sleep when the sleep comes down on me.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  MyselfSleep
• 

  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 COLVIN
  MyselfRightWhiteYoung
• 

  There was segregation everywhere. The churches, buses and schools were all segregated and you couldn’t even go into the same restaurants.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  OppressionYourself
• 

  I never swore when I was young.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  MyselfYoung
• 

  New York is a completely different culture to Montgomery, Alabama.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  CultureDifferentHistory
• 

  There were many African Americans – many, many stories similar to my story.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  MyselfRaceStory
• 

  When you’ve been abused daily and you see people humiliated and harassed, you just get tired of it.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  HumilityPeopleYourself
• 

  When our founding fathers drafted the Constitution and Bill of Rights, black people weren’t even considered human.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  FatherHumanOurselvesPeople
• 

  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.

  CLAUDETTE COLVIN
  ChildrenDealMyselfWorld