Claudette Colvin

I lost most of my friends. Their parents had told them to stay away from me, because they said I was crazy,…

— Claudette Colvin

When I got to 10th grade at Booker T. Washington High, I had a teacher, Miss Geraldine Nesbitt. I think she came…

— Claudette Colvin

I always tell young people to hold on to their dreams. And sometimes you have to stand up for what you think…

— Claudette Colvin

I just couldn't move. History had me glued to the seat.

— Claudette Colvin

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

— Claudette Colvin

I left the South in 1963 and was living in Morristown, New Jersey, when the March on Washington took place, so I…

— Claudette Colvin

I was ostracized by my community.

— Claudette Colvin

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

— 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…

— Claudette Colvin

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

— Claudette Colvin

A lot has changed since I grew up, but there's still a long way to go. I don't think we can move…

— Claudette Colvin

I wanted to be an attorney. My mother would say I never stopped talking. I always had a lot of questions to…

— Claudette Colvin

We were churchgoing people.

— Claudette Colvin

A lot of African American women wanted to emulate white women. But I said in my mind, rationally thinking, there is no…

— Claudette Colvin

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

— 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…

— Claudette Colvin

The Montgomery Bus Boycott began in December 1955, and by 1956 NAACP leaders came to me and asked me to be part…

— Claudette Colvin

What do we have to do to make God love us?' I always grew up with that. I always used to go…

— Claudette Colvin

Being dragged off that bus was worth it just to see Barack Obama become president, because so many others gave their lives…

— Claudette Colvin

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

— 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…

— 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…

— Claudette Colvin

As long as white people put people of color, African Americans and Latinos, in the same dispensable bag, and look at our…

— Claudette Colvin

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

— Claudette Colvin

I never swore when I was young.

— Claudette Colvin