Rosa Parks Quotes

“People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

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

“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.”

“You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.”

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

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

“I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.”

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

“I had felt for a long time that, if I was ever told to get up so a white person could sit, that I would refuse to do so.”

“The driver of the bus saw me still sitting there, and he asked was I going to stand up. I said, "No." He said, "Well, I'm going to have you arrested." Then I said, "You may do that."

“I did not get on the bus to get arrested. I got on the bus to go home.”

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

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

“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.”

“Why do you all push us around?”

“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.”

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

“As far back as I can remember, I knew there was something wrong with our way of life when people could be mistreated because of the colour of their skin.”

“I'd see the bus pass every day. But to me, that was a way of life; we had no choice but to accept what was the custom. The bus was among the first ways I realised there was a black world and a white world.”

“I was born 50 years after slavery, in 1913. I was allowed to read. My mother, who was a teacher, taught me when I was a very young child.”

“We didn't have any civil rights. It was just a matter of survival, of existing from one day to the next. I remember going to sleep as a girl hearing the Klan ride at night and being afraid the house would burn down.”

“I have been refused entrance on the buses because I would not pay my fare at the front and go around to the rear door to enter.”

“You spend your whole lifetime in your occupation, actually making life clever, easy and convenient for white people. But when you have to get transportation home, you are denied an equal accommodation.”

“It is not easy to remain rational and normal mentally in such a setting where, even in our airport in Montgomery, there is a white waiting room. There are restroom facilities for white ladies and coloured women, white men and coloured men.”

“Whites would accuse you of causing trouble when all you were doing was acting like a normal human being instead of cringing.”