I became aware of how the world is and how the white establishment plays black people against each other.
CLAUDETTE COLVINThere was segregation everywhere. The churches, buses and schools were all segregated and you couldn’t even go into the same restaurants.
More Claudette Colvin Quotes
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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’d like my grandchildren to be able to see that their grandmother stood up for something, a long time ago.
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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 were many African Americans – many, many stories similar to my story.
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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.
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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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That was worse than stealing, you know, talking back to a white person.
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New York is a completely different culture to Montgomery, Alabama.
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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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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.
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I never swore when I was young.
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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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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.
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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.
CLAUDETTE COLVIN