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."

"I'd see the bus pass every day... But to me, that was a way of life; we had no choice but to accept what was the custom. The bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black world and a white…"

"People always said 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, a…"

"We didn't have any civil rights. It was just a matter of survival, of existing from one day to the next. I remember going to sleep as a girl hearing the Klan ride at night and hearing a lynching and b…"

"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."

"I did not get on the bus to get arrested. I got on the bus to go home."

"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."

"I did not want to be mistreated, I did not want to be deprived of a seat that I had paid for. It was just time... there was an opportunity for me to take a stand to express the way I felt about being …"