Claudette Colvin Quotes

“I knew then and I know now, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it.” ~ Claudette Colvin

“Back then, as a teenager, I kept thinking, Why don’t the adult around here just say something? Say it so they know we don’t accept segregation? I knew then and I know now that, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can’t sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, ‘This is not right.’ And I did.” ~ Claudette Colvin

“I just couldn’t move. History had me glued to the seat.” ~ Claudette Colvin

Whenever people ask me: ‘Why didn’t you get up when the bus driver asked you?’ I say it felt as though Harriet Tubman’s hands were pushing me down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth’s hands were pushing me down on the other shoulder. I felt inspired by these women because my teacher taught us about them in so much detail. Claudette Colvin

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

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

When I got to 10th grade at Booker T. Washington High, I had a teacher, Miss Geraldine Nesbitt. I think she came from New York. She helped me begin to question things. Claudette Colvin

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

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

The Montgomery Bus Boycott began in December 1955, and by 1956 NAACP leaders came to me and asked me to be part of a lawsuit they wanted to file on my behalf and that of three other women, to challenge segregation on public buses. Claudette Colvin

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

Back then, as a teenager, I kept thinking, why don’t the adults around here just say something? Say it so they know we don’t accept segregation? I knew then and I know now that, when it comes to justice, there’s no easy way to get it. You can’t sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, ‘This is not right.’ Claudette Colvin

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

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

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

Rosa Parks wasn’t the first one to rebel against the segregated seats. I was the first one. Claudette Colvin

I remember during Easter one year, I was to get a pair of black patent shoes but you could only get them from the white stores, so my mother drew the outline of my feet on a brown paper bag in order to get the closest size, because we weren’t allowed to go in the store to try them on. Claudette Colvin

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

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

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