60+ Best Rosa Parks Quotes From The Civil Rights Movement Activist

Rosa Parks was recognized as an international civil rights icon due to her role in the historic Montgomery bus boycott. After this event, she gained the titles Mother Of The Freedom Movement and First Lady Of Civil Rights Movement. Being from an African American community, she dedicated her life to human rights. She also collaborated with several activists like Edgar Nixon and Martin Luther King Jr. One of her most famous incidents was the Montgomery Bus Boycott. She became an important symbol in the movement simply because she refused to give up her self-respect because of her skin color. “To bring about courage, you must not be afraid to take the first step. We will fail wehn we fail to try.”, is a famous Rosa Parks quote. Here are several quotes by Rosa Parks for you to get inspired by her pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement.

What Parents Should Know

Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, in the southern United States.

Unfortunately for her, she had to drop out of school at the age of 16, but she went to high school to get her diploma after marrying a hairdresser named Raymond Parks

She used to work as a seamstress at a Montgomery Fair department store.

What To Discuss With Kids

Faced with racism, Rosa Parks decided to stand up for what was right.

She joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and worked to end discrimination.

She fought to spread awareness on how to approach and treat people the same irrespective of their background.

1. “As a child I learned from the Bible to trust in God and not be afraid. And I felt the Lord would give me the strength to endure whatever I had to face. God did away with all my fear.”

2. "I believe there is only one race – the human race."

3. "One person can change the world."

4. "I’m tired of being treated like a second-class citizen."

5. “I learned to put my trust in God and to see Him as my strength. Long ago I set my mind to be a free person and not to give in to fear. I always felt that it was my right to defend myself if I could. 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."

6. "Without vision, people perish, and without courage and inspiration dreams die."

7. "Each person must live their life as a model for others."

8. “I had decided that I would not go anywhere with a piece of paper in my hand asking white folks for any favors. I had made that decision myself, as an individual.”

9. "The bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black world and a white world."

10. "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."

11. "There was an opportunity for me to take a stand."

12. "Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today’s mighty oak is yesterday’s nut that held its ground."

13. "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."

14. "There is no future without education."

15. "To this day I believe we are here on planet earth to live, grow, and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom."

16. "Arrest me for sitting on a bus? You may do that."

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

18. "You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right."

19. "I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people."

20. "Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others."

21. "To bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step. We will fail when we fail to try."

22. "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."

23. "God has always given me the strength to say what is right."

24. "I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free... so other people would be also free."

25. “I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.”

26. “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.”

27. “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.”

28. “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.”

29. “Why do you all push us around?”

30. “All I was doing was trying to get home from work.”

31. “My only concern was to get home after a hard day’s work.”

32.“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.”

33. “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.”

34. “Arrest me for sitting on a bus? You may do that.” “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.”

35. “No.”

36. “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.”

37. “I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move.”

38. “Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it.”

39. “I was just trying to let them know how I felt about being treated as a human being”

40. 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.

41. “We had a saying that we worked "from can to can't," which means working from when you can see (sunup) to when you can't (sundown).”

42. “What I learned best at Miss White's school was that 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.”

43. “One of my greatest pleasures there was enjoying the smell of bacon frying and coffee brewing and knowing that white folks were doing the preparing instead of me. I was 42 years old, and it was one of the few times in my life up to that point when I did not feel any hostility from white people.”

44. “That was a difference between black slaves and white indentured servants. Black slaves were usually not allowed to keep their names, but were given new names by their owners.”

45. “Even when there was segregation there was plenty of integration in the South, but it was for the benefit and convenience of the white person, not us.”

46. “At the time, i didn't realize why there was so much Klan activity, but later I learned that it was because African-American soldiers were returning from World War Iasn acting as if they deserved equal rights because they had served their country.”

47. "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."

48. “The overseer beat him, tried to starve him, wouldn't let him have any shoes, treated him so badly that he had a very intense, passionate hatred for white people. My grandfather was the one who instilled in my mother and her sisters, and in their children, that you don't put up with bad treatment from anybody. It was passed down almost in our genes.”

49. “To this day I believe we are here on earth to live, grow, and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.”

50. “Nah” - Rosa Parks said this when asked to give her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery.

51. “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, [...] the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

52. “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.”

53. “It was just a matter of survivalーlike getting off the roadーso we could exist from day to day.”

54. "What really matters is not whether we have problems, but whether we go through them. We must keep going on to make it through whatever we are facing."

55. "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."

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

57. "I see the energy of young people as a real force for positive change."

58. "Our freedom is threatened every time one of our young people is killed by another child… every time a person gets stopped and beaten by the police because of the color of their skin."

59. "Time begins the healing process of wounds cut deeply by oppression. We soothe ourselves with the salve of attempted indifference."

60. "People need to free their minds of all racial prejudice."

61. "I will always work for human rights for all people."

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