Rosa Parks quotes

Born
February 4, 1913 Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.

Died
October 24, 2005.

Occupation
Civil rights activist.

Rosa Parks was an activist in the Civil Rights Movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

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.
– Rosa Parks

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

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 color of their skin.
– Rosa Parks

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.
– Rosa Parks

All I was doing was trying to get home from work.
– Rosa Parks

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

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.
– Rosa Parks

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.
– Rosa Parks

God has always given me the strength to say what is right.
– Rosa Parks

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.
– Rosa Parks

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.
– Rosa Parks

My only concern was to get home after a hard day’s work.
– Rosa Parks

I’m tired of being treated like a second-class citizen.
– Rosa Parks

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

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.
– Rosa Parks

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.
– Rosa Parks

There is just so much hurt, disappointment, and oppression one can take… The line between reason and madness grows thinner.
– Rosa Parks

Why do you all push us around?
– Rosa Parks

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. The first school I attended was a small building that went from first to sixth grade. There was one teacher for all of the students. There could be anywhere from 50 to 60 students of all different ages.
– Rosa Parks

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