Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has called her “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement”. On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks rejected bus driver’s order to relinquish her seat in the “colored section” to a white passenger, after the whites-only section was filled, leading to her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama segregation laws.
Rosa Parks’ prominence in the community and her willingness to become a controversial figure inspired the black community to boycott the Montgomery buses for over a year, the first major direct-action campaign of the post-war civil rights movement. Parks’ act of defiance and the Montgomery bus boycott became important symbols of the movement. She became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation.
She organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr.. Parks received national recognition, including the NAACP’s 1979 Spingarn Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, and a posthumous statue in the United States Capitol’s National Statuary Hall. Upon her death in 2005, she was the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda, becoming the thirty-first person to receive this honor.
Some of the best quotes from Rosa Parks are listed below.
- “All I was doing was trying to get home from work.” – Rosa Parks
- “Arrest me for sitting on a bus? You may do that.” – 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
- “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
- “Each person must live their life as a model for others.” – Rosa Parks
- “God has always given me the strength to say what is right.” – Rosa Parks
- “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.” – Rosa Parks
- “I believe there is only one race – the human race.” – Rosa Parks
- “I believe 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.” – Rosa Parks
- “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. I think when you say you’re happy, you have everything that you need and everything that you want, and nothing more to wish for. I haven’t reached that stage yet.” – Rosa Parks
- “I had given up my seat before, but this day, I was especially tired. Tired from my work as a seamstress, and tired from the ache in my heart.” – Rosa Parks
- “I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving up.” – 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
- “I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move.” – Rosa Parks
- “I paid the same fare as others, and I felt violated. I was not going back.” – Rosa Parks
- “I see the energy of young people as a real force for positive change.” – Rosa Parks
- “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.” – Rosa Parks
- “I was just trying to let them know how I felt about being treated as a human being” – Rosa Parks
- “I will always work for human rights for all people.” – Rosa Parks
- “I will no longer act on the outside in a way that contradicts the truth that I hold deeply inside. I will no longer act as if I were less than the whole person I know myself inwardly to be.” – Rosa Parks
- “I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.” – 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
- “I’m tired of being treated like a second-class citizen.” – 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
- “Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.” – Rosa Parks
- “My only concern was to get home after a hard day’s work.” – Rosa Parks
- “No.” – Rosa Parks
- “One person can change the world.” – Rosa Parks
- “Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it.” – Rosa Parks
- “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” – Rosa Parks
- “People need to free their minds of all racial prejudice.” – 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
- “Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today’s mighty oak is yesterday’s nut that held its ground.” – Rosa Parks
- “The bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black world and a white world.” – Rosa Parks
- “There is just so much hurt, disappointment, and oppression one can take. The line between reason and madness grows thinner.” – Rosa Parks
- “There is no future without education.” – Rosa Parks
- “There was an opportunity for me to take a stand.” – Rosa Parks
- “To bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step. We will fail when we fail to try.” – Rosa Parks
- “What really matters is not whether we have problems, but we go through them. We must keep going on to make it through whatever we are facing.” – 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
- “Why do you all push us around?” – Rosa Parks
- “Without vision, people perish, and without courage and inspiration dreams die.” – Rosa Parks
- “You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.” – Rosa Parks
