Rosa Parks Quotes
200 Rosa Parks Quotes
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When I sat down on the bus the day I was arrested, I was thinking of going home. I had made up my mind quickly about what it was that I had to do, what I felt was right to do. I did not think of being physically tired or fearful.
Rosa Parks
After so many years of oppression and being a victim of the mistreatment that my people had suffered, not giving up my seat – and whatever I had to face after not giving it up – was not important. I did not feel any fear at sitting in the seat I was sitting in.
Rosa Parks
All I felt was tired. Tired of being pushed around. Tired of seeing the bad treatment and the disrespect of children, women, and men just because of the color of their skin. Tired of the Jim Crow laws. Tired of being oppressed. I was just plain tired.
Rosa Parks
I cannot let myself be so afraid that I am unable to move around freely and express myself. If I do, then I am undoing the gains we have made in the civil rights movement. Love, not fear, must be our guide.
Rosa Parks
We should not let fear overcome us. We must remain strong.
Rosa Parks
It is easy to say we have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go… But I still remain hopeful.
Rosa Parks
[I wanted to be] free like everybody else. I did not want to be continually humiliated over something I had no control over. The color of my skin.
Rosa Parks
It is better to teach – and live – equality and love than it is to teach hatred. I would like to see everyone living together in peace, harmony, and love, not dwelling on the horrors of the past. It is time to move forward.
Rosa Parks
Too many of today’s youths do not know who they are or where they are going. Too many are not staying in school and taking advantage of the opportunities a good education can provide. They are not motivated to learn what is necessary to be good citizens, get good jobs, or start their own businesses. There is nothing wrong with these young people. We must help them. It is our job to show them the way, to teach them values, to prepare them for the future, and to help them set goals.
Rosa Parks
One thing we need to do is tell young people about our struggles for civil rights. I think they sometimes have difficulty separating fact from fiction when it comes to our history. It’s important that they hear how things were and what some of us had to go through before them. Many of them do not appreciate the suffering their ancestors have endured to bring them the degree of freedom they now enjoy. They must be reminded that many people have died so that they can have what they have now.
Rosa Parks
Racism is still alive and will stay with us as long as we allow it. But we can teach our youth to continue the effort and not lose the gains we have achieved. We can show them how opportunities come along and how individuals can still bring about change.
Rosa Parks
We must teach children to prepare for the future – how to set goals for their lives and for their careers. We must do more to inspire, train, and motivate them. They need effective role models to help them develop strength of character. They should be taught to understand the difference between knowledge, feeling and behavior. Rather than be so hard on them, we should instead set an example for them to follow.
Rosa Parks
By learning about the past, you are already helping a great deal toward making the future better for people of all races.
Rosa Parks
Getting arrested was one of the worst days in my life. It was not a happy experience.
There is no future without education.
Rosa Parks
Because of segregation and the need to work to help support their families, my grandfather and my husband were not able to obtain a formal education. But they worked hard and educated themselves!
Rosa Parks
Even if the buildings are old and the textbooks worn, the opportunity to learn is there.
Rosa Parks
We must not let their struggle and sacrifice be in vain.
Rosa Parks
It is my prayer that my legacy… will be a source of inspiration and strength to all who receive it.
Rosa Parks
Long ago I set my mind to be a free person and not to give in to fear. I always felt it was my right to defend myself if I could.
Rosa Parks
The only thing that bothered me was that we waited so long to make this protest.
Rosa Parks
I came along, and I was a sickly child, small for my age. It was probably hard for my mother to take care of me.
Rosa Parks
We had a saying, that we worked from can to can’t, which means working from when you can see [sunup] to when you can’t [sundown]. I never will forget how the sun just burned into me. The hot sand burned our feet whether or not we had our old work shoes on.
Rosa Parks
At that time only a small percentage of black people in Montgomery were high school graduates. In 1940, seven years after I got my diploma, only seven out of every hundred had as much as a high school diploma.
Rosa Parks
[Franklin D Roosevelt had forbidden segregation in public places and on military bases] I could ride on an integrated trolley on the base, but when I left the base, I had to ride home on a segregated bus.
Rosa Parks
[On Maxwell Field] You might just say Maxwell opened my eyes up. It was an alternative reality to the ugly racial policies of Jim Crow.
Rosa Parks
Racism was almost as widespread in Detroit as in Montgomery, and my husband, Raymond, wanted to stay in Alabama. So we put aside any ideas of moving to a northern promised land that wasn’t.
Rosa Parks
In 1892, Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow railcar, and the Supreme Court ruled against him. Baton Rouge was – like the Montgomery bus boycott – an organized attempt to vindicate Homer Plessy.
Rosa Parks
The registration card is enclosed. I am certainly most grateful to Mrs. Durr for recommending me to you… The Highlander Folk School seems like a wonderful place. I am looking forward with eager anticipation to attending the workshop, hoping to make a contribution to the fulfillment of a complete freedom for all people.
Rosa Parks
[At Highlander] We forgot about what color was. I was forty-two years old, and it was one of the few times in my life up to that point when I did not feel any hostility from white people. I experienced people of different races and backgrounds meeting together in workshops and living in together in peace and harmony. I felt that I could express myself honestly, without any repercussions or antagonistic attitudes from other people.
Rosa Parks
[On Septima Clark] I only hope that there is a possible chance that some of her great courage and dignity and wisdom has rubbed off on me.
Rosa Parks
I see the energy of young people as a real force for positive change.
Rosa Parks
[At Highlander] I gained the strength to preserve in my work for freedom.
Rosa Parks
[On Dr Martin Luther King Jr] I was very impressed by his eloquence. He looked like he might have been a student in college instead of a minister at a very prestigious church… I thought he was well prepared to take a role of leadership in the community. But I didn’t have any thought about how high he would go.
Rosa Parks
The main thing they wanted to decide at the meeting was whether to continue the boycott. Some people thought we should quit while we were ahead. And hardly anybody thought the boycott could go longer than the end of the week, which was four days. If it did, it could be very dangerous, because everyone knew that whites wouldn’t stand for it. [The boycott ended up lasting more than one year.]
Rosa Parks
You can learn something from everyone. Remember, no one is perfect. Keep this in mind as you set examples for others.
Rosa Parks
I did not get on the bus to get arrested; I got on the bus to go home.
Rosa Parks
I chose not to move, because I was right.
Rosa Parks
We should not let fear overcome us.
Rosa Parks
I don’t believe in gradualism or that whatever is to be done for the better should take forever to do.
Rosa Parks
A legacy should be cherished by those who receive it. It is my prayer that my legacy, and the legacy of my husband, will be a source of inspiration and strength to all who receive it.
Rosa Parks
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