Claudette Colvin
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Because they're getting 28 and 30 percent and 32 percent.
They thought I would have been too militant for them.
They wanted someone mild and genteel like Rosa.
I'm going to break you.
Open the door.
Last warning.
People ask me, say, why didn't you get up?
I say, you know what?
History had me glued to the seat.
I said, well, it felt as though Harriet Tubman's hand was pushing me down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth's hand was pushing me down on another shoulder.
We cannot take our country.
It's ours.
We need to get and stand together and fight for it.
I could not move because history had me glued to the seat.
It felt like soldier on the truth, hands were pushing me down on one shoulder, and Harriet Tubman, hands were pushing me down on another shoulder.
And after Rosa Parks, there wouldn't have been a Dr. King.
That this teenager was mature enough to know her rights.
All I do remember is that I wasn't going to walk off the bus voluntarily.