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…"

"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 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 …"

"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…"

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