Rosa Parks Quotes (30 Quotes)

I thought about Emmett Till, and I could not go back. My legs and feet were not hurting, that is a stereotype. I paid the same fare as others, and I felt violated. I was not going back.

I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free... so other people would be also free.

It was just a matter of survival... of existing from one day to the next. I remember going to sleep as a girl and hearing the Ku Klux Klan ride at night and hearing a lynching and being afraid the house would burn down.

At the time I was arrested I had no idea it would turn into this. It was just a day like any other day. The only thing that made it significant was that the masses of the people joined in.

was the catalyst of one of the most important freedom movements not only in American history but in world history .. indeed she became the symbol and personification of our nonviolent struggle for liberation and human dignity.

Some of her early memories were of white people who treated blacks kindly, particularly a Yankee soldier who said she was cute and treated me like I was just another little girl, not a little black girl, ... Rosa Parks My Story.

I only knew that as I was being arrested it was the last time I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind,

When the history of this country is written, when a final accounting is done, it is this small, quiet woman whose name will be remembered long after the names of senators and presidents have been forgotten.

was that I was a person with dignity and self-respect, and I should not set my sights lower than anybody else just because I was black.

The time had just come when I had been pushed as far as I could stand to be pushed, I suppose. I had decided that I would have to know, once and for all, what rights I had as a human being and a citizen, even in Montgomery, Alabama.

Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.

Why do you all push us around?

All I was doing was trying to get home from work.

I'm tired of being treated like a second-class citizen.

He was the first, aside from my grandfather and Mr. Gus Vaughn, who was never actually afraid of white people, ... So many African Americans felt that you just had to be under Mr. Charlie's heel - that's what we called the white man, Mr. Charlie - and couldn't do anything to cross him. In other words, Parks believed in being a man and expected to be treated as a man.

mother of the civil rights movement.

I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move.

I believe that we are here on the planet Earth to live, grow up and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.

Whatever my individual desires were to be free, I was not alone. There were many others who felt the same way.

Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome.

I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.

We've got an urban area with very few middle-class citizens in it, ... I don't think anything could bring me back.

I heard that she sat down on the bus. That is all that I know. They don't tell you too much about this stuff at school. They talk mostly about military tactics and how wars were won.

Have you ever been hurt and the place tries to heal a bit, and you just pull the scar off of it over and over again.

Each person must live their life as a model for others.

It was not pre-arranged. It just happened that the driver made a demand and I just didn't feel like obeying his demand. I was quite tired after spending a full day working.

My only concern was to get home after a hard day's work.

I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day, but I don't think there is any such thing as complete happiness. I think when you say you're happy, you have everything you need and everything you want, and nothing more to wish for. I haven't reached that stage yet.

He said Parks' death also made him reflect on the many other African-Americans who had similarly refused to abide by the rules of segregation, but whose names are largely lost to history. I kept asking myself today, what made this different, ... I think what made it different was people were willing to stand behind her.

Her act of civil disobedience, for which she was willing to pay the price to end the rein of terror, got her arrested.