I became aware of how the world is and how the white establishment plays black people against each other.
Claudette ColvinRead
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.'
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of speaking out against injustice and taking a stand for what is right.
Claudette Colvin reflects on her youthful desire for adults to speak out against segregation, illustrating her belief that achieving justice requires boldness and clarity. She conveys the lesson that silence in the face of wrongdoing perpetuates injustice, and individuals must act courageously to confront and oppose such issues directly.
Themes
JusticeCourageSegregationStandTruth
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on civil rights, one might reference this quote to inspire activism against inequality.
More from Claudette Colvin
All quotes →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 ColvinRead
When our founding fathers drafted the Constitution and Bill of Rights, black people weren't even considered human.
Claudette ColvinRead
I'd like my grandchildren to be able to see that their grandmother stood up for something, a long time ago.
Claudette ColvinRead
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 ColvinRead
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 ColvinRead
Similar quotes
When you are thinking about going away for a long duration mission, it has to be part of your mindset that you're leaving your family, but it's for the right reasons, for good reasons, and hopefully helping humanity.
Sunita WilliamsRead
Moral courage is the highest expression of humanity.
Ralph NaderRead
It’s a wonder I’m even alive. Sometimes I think that. I think that I can’t believe I haven’t killed myself. But there’s something in me that just keeps going on. I think it has something to do with tomorrow, that there is always one, and that everything can change when it comes.
Augusten BurroughsRead
We show up to fight racism, anti-black racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, misogyny, patriarchy, anti-Semitism, because after Donald Trump is out of office, there will still be all those things here.
Linda SarsourRead
Brave men don't belong to any one country. I respect bravery wherever I see it.
Harry S. TrumanRead
I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done...in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit: so let it be done!
John BrownRead