On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks made history when she refused to give up her seat for a white passenger on a city bus in Montgomery, Ala.
Her subsequent arrest led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a pivotal milestone in the Civil Rights Movement that led the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a lower court’s ruling that racial segregation on public buses violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.
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Parks passed away in 2005 at 92, but her legacy lives on. Now, 68 years after that important moment in Black history, we remember some of Parks’ most captivating quotes about the importance of standing up for what you believe in.
“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, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” — 1992's “Rosa Parks: My Story”
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“I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free… so other people would be also free.” — 1987 PBS documentary Eyes on the Prize
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“I had not planned to get arrested. I had plenty to do without having to end up in jail. But when I had to face that decision, I didn’t hesitate to do so because I felt that we had endured that too long. The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became.” – 1992 NPR interview
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“Differences of race, nationality or religion should not be used to deny any human being citizenship rights or privileges. Life is to be lived to its fullest so that death is just another chapter. Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.” — from Life magazine, 1988
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“I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.” — from Parks’ 77th birthday, according to Women’s National Hall of Fame.
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“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.” — 1998 interview with Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy.
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“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.” — NAACP meeting in Baltimore, October 1956
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“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.” — Life magazine, 1988
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“You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.” – from Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.’s Rosa Parks exhibit.
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