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 was about four years old the first time I ever saw what happened when you acted up to whites.
More Claudette Colvin Quotes
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There were many African Americans – many, many stories similar to my story.
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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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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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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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Rosa Parks wasn’t the first one to rebel against the segregated seats. I was the first one.
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New York is a completely different culture to Montgomery, Alabama.
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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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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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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 was ostracized by my community.
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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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I was about four years old the first time I ever saw what happened when you acted up to whites.
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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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When our founding fathers drafted the Constitution and Bill of Rights, black people weren’t even considered human.
CLAUDETTE COLVIN