Rosa Parks Quotes

“There is just so much hurt, disappointment, and oppression one can take. The line between reason and madness grows thinner.”

“Time begins the healing process of wounds cut deeply by oppression. We soothe ourselves with the salve of attempted indifference, accepting the false pattern set up by the horrible restriction of Jim Crow laws.”

“Let us look at Jim Crow for the criminal he is and what he has done to one life multiplied millions of times over these United States and the world. He walks us on a tightrope from birth.”

“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.”

“I talked and talked of everything I know about the white man's inhuman treatment of the Negro.”

“I have never been what you would call just an integrationist. Integrating that bus wouldn't mean more equality. Even when there was segregation, there was plenty of integration in the South, but it was for the benefit and convenience of the white person, not us.”

“I don't think well of people who are prejudiced against people because of race. The only way for prejudiced people to change is for them to decide for themselves that all human beings should be treated fairly.”

“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 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 anything such as complete happiness. It pains me that there is still a lot of Klan activity and racism.”

“The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute accepts people of any race. We don't discriminate against anyone. We teach people to reach their highest potential. I set examples by the way I lead my life.”

“I honour my late husband Raymond Parks, other Freedom Fighters, men of goodwill who could not be here. Raymond, or Parks as I called him, was an activist in the Scottsboro Boys case, voter registration, and a role model for youth.”

“God has always given me the strength to say what is right.”

“Since I have always been a strong believer in God, I knew that He was with me, and only He could get me through that next step.”

“From my upbringing and the Bible I learned people should stand up for rights just as the children of Israel stood up to the Pharaoh.”

“Every day before supper and before we went to services on Sundays my grandmother would read the Bible to me, and my grandfather would pray. I learned to put my trust in God and to seek Him as my strength.”