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 Read Quote
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 Read Quote
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 Read Quote
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 Read Quote
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 Read Quote
When you’ve been abused daily and you see people humiliated and harassed, you just get tired of it. Claudette Colvin Read Quote
There was segregation everywhere. The churches, buses and schools were all segregated and you couldn’t even go into the same restaurants. Claudette Colvin Read Quote
Young people think Rosa Parks just sat down on a bus and ended segregation, but that wasn’t the case at all. Claudette Colvin Read Quote
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 Read Quote
I was about four years old the first time I ever saw what happened when you acted up to whites. Claudette Colvin Read Quote
