Top 100 Quotes About Rosa Parks
#1. I just think Rosa Parks was overrated. Last time I checked, she got famous for breaking the law.
Stephen Colbert
#2. If Rosa Parks had not refused to move to the back of the bus, you and I might never have heard of Dr. Martin Luther King.
Ramsey Clark
#3. Most students graduate from high school knowing nine words about the civil rights movement: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and "I Have a Dream." And that's it!
Andrew Aydin
#4. The campaign to put a woman on the $20 bill has narrowed the choices down to four finalists. The four finalists are Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Flo from the Progressive Insurance ads.
Conan O'Brien
#5. Fear would have told the Wright brothers not to fly. Fear would have told Rosa Parks to change seats. Fear would have told Steve Jobs that people hate touchscreens.
Jon Acuff
#6. I was raised in Arizona, and I went to public school, and the extent of my knowledge of the civil-rights movement was the story of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. I wonder how much my generation knows.
Emma Stone
#7. Rosa Parks showed us all that one little person can make a whole bunch of noise without so much as a whisper. She showed the world that the color of your skin shouldn't determine what part of the bus you sit in ... as you ride through life.
Richard Pryor
#8. She was by no means one of the great refusers. Not an existentialist hero, or a Rosa Parks, or even a Bartleby.
Renata Adler
#9. Rosa Parks' entire career has been one as working as a civil rights activist.
Douglas Brinkley
#10. In the struggle against sexual discrimination on Wall Street, Pamela K. Martens is a latter-day Rosa Parks - a woman who, metaphorically speaking, refused to sit in the back of the bus.
Gary Weiss
#11. If Willie Nelson had been Rosa Parks, there never would have been a civil rights movement in this country, because he refuses to leave the back of the bus.
Kinky Friedman
#12. I went to jail 44 times. I've been beaten and left for dead on the side of the road fighting for freedom ... Yet Rosa Parks is better known in history than Ralph David Abernathy. Why is that?
Ralph Abernathy
#13. Some people know Rosa Parks, they know Daisy Bates in Arkansas, but every ... Ruby Doris Smith, Diane Nash, countless individuals.
John Lewis
#14. We want to make certain that every American who stood in silent tribute to Rosa Parks hopes that the Sepreme Court Judge will break silence and speak out clearly for the civil rights that define our unity as a nation.
Dick Durbin
#15. Rosa Parks inspired many. She will not be forgotten.
John Shimkus
#16. The world knows of Rosa Parks because of a single, simple act of dignity and courage that struck a lethal blow to the foundations of legal bigotry.
William J. Clinton
#17. Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther King could walk. Martin Luther King walked so Obama could run. Obama's running so we all can fly.
Jay-Z
#18. Let me speak frankly: separate but equal is a fraud. It is the language that tried to push Rosa Parks to the back of the bus. It is the motif that determined that black and white people could not possibly drink from the same water fountain, eat at the same table or use the same toilets.
David Lammy
#19. People look at me like I should have been like Malcolm X or Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks. I should have seen life like that and stay out of trouble, and don't do this and don't do that. But it's hard to live up to some people's expectations.
Rodney King
#20. There will come a time when the gun owners of America, the law-abiding gun owners of America, will be the Rosa Parks and we will sit down on the front seat of the bus, case closed,
Ted Nugent
#21. Rosa Parks will be remembered for her lasting contributions to society. Her legacy lives on in the continued struggle for civil rights around the world. She will be missed.
Jim Costa
#22. Half a century ago, the amazing courage of Rosa Parks, the visionary leadership of Martin Luther King, and the inspirational actions of the civil rights movement led politicians to write equality into the law and make real the promise of America for all her citizens.
David Cameron
#23. One of the things about Steve Jobs is that he gives us an opportunity to look at the disjuncture between that world and the world he claimed that Apple represented, the "Think different" world of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and Gandhi.
Alex Gibney
#24. In many ways, history is marked as 'before' and 'after' Rosa Parks. She sat down in order that we all might stand up, and the walls of segregation came down.
Jesse Jackson
#25. The real meaning of courage was the personal sacrifice of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King.
Pete Seeger
#26. If Rosa Parks had taken a poll before she sat down in the bus in Montgomery, she'd still be standing.
Mary Frances Berry
#27. I was stunned to find out there had never been a serious, scholarly biography ever written on Rosa Parks.
Douglas Brinkley
#28. The civil rights movement would experience many important victories, but Rosa Parks will always be remembered as its catalyst.
Jim Costa
#29. Today's college students demand a self-segregating "safe space". Rosa Parks spinning in her grave.
A.E. Samaan
#30. Rosa Parks was the queen mother of a movement whose single act of heroism sparked the movement for freedom, justice and equality. Her greatest contribution is that she told us a regular person can make a difference.
Marc Morial
#31. Rosa Parks' courage, determination, and tenacity continue to be an inspiration to all those committed to non-violent protest and change nearly half a century later.
Bob Filner
#32. In France it was Joan of Arc; in the Crimea it was Florence Nightingale; in the deep south there was Rosa Parks; in India there was Mother Teresa and in Florida there was Katherine Harris.
Larry Gatlin
#33. Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Gandhi - all these peopled described themselves as quiet and soft-spoken and even shy. And they all took the spotlight, even though every bone in their bodies was telling them not to.
Susan Cain
#34. There were three Selma-to-Montgomery marches in March 1965, and Rosa Parks had missed the first one. Parks, whose act of civil disobedience sparked the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, moved to Detroit two years later for safety reasons.
Douglas Brinkley
#35. A president can be unpopular for good reasons. You know, I'm not always on the side that the people are right, for God's sake. But, you know, he's not popular when he goes overseas. He couldn't go to Rosa Parks' funeral.
Bill Maher
#36. Her continuity - you know, if you connect Harriet Tubman, who died in 1913, to Rosa Parks, born in 1913, you get this extraordinary spectrum of the African-American experience.
Douglas Brinkley
#37. I am Classic Rock Revisited. I revisit it every waking moment of my life because it has the spirit and the attitude and the fire and the middle finger. I am Rosa Parks with a Gibson guitar.
Ted Nugent
#38. Let's go beyond the Trinity of African-American History. There are so many more to learn about other than Harriett Tubman, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks.
Karimah Grayson
#39. Rosa Parks was a woman of strength, conviction, and morality. Her action on December 1, 1955, to defy the law made her a leading figure in our nation's civil rights history.
John Shimkus
#40. I think, along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks will go down as one of the two most well-known and remembered figures out of the Civil Rights Movement.
Douglas Brinkley
#41. When that white driver stepped back toward us, when he waved his hand and ordered us up and out of our seats, I felt a determination cover my body like a quilt on a winter night.
Rosa Parks
#42. I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day.
Rosa Parks
#43. Whatever my individual desires were to be free, I was not alone. There were many others who felt the same way.
Rosa Parks
#44. If I can sit down for freedom, you can stand up for children.
Rosa Parks
#45. 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 world.
Rosa Parks
#46. Victory or defeat? It is the slogan of all-powerful militarism in every belligerent nation. And yet, what can victory bring to the proletariat?
Rosa Parks
#47. There is just so much hurt, disappointment, and oppression one can take ... The line between reason and madness grows thinner.
Rosa Parks
#48. There is no future without education.
Rosa Parks
#49. I am leaving this legacy to all of you ... to bring peace, justice, equality, love and a fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die - the dream of freedom and peace.
Rosa Parks
#50. 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
#51. All I was trying to do was get home from work.
Rosa Parks
#52. [Rosa Louise] Parks used to say, "Everybody looks at me because I sat down once in Montgomery, but the real hero is a woman named Septima Clark."She created the Citizenship Schools [where civil-rights activists taught basic literacy and political education classes].
Marian Wright Edelman
#53. Each person must live their life as a model for others.
Rosa Parks
#54. There were times when it would have been easy to fall apart or to go in the opposite direction, but somehow I felt that if I took on more step, someone would come along to join me.
Rosa Parks
#55. God has always given me the strength to say what is right.
Rosa Parks
#56. I did not get on the bus to get arrested I got on the bus to go home.
Rosa Parks
#57. I will always work for human rights for all people.
Rosa Parks
#58. It is better to protest than to accept injustice.
Rosa Parks
#59. You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.
Rosa Parks
#60. The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.
Rosa Parks
#61. I talked and talked of everything I know about the white man's inhuman treatment of the Negro.
Rosa Parks
#62. Let us look at Jim Crow for the criminal he is and what he has done to one life multiplied millions of times over these United States and the world. He walks us on a tightrope from birth.
Rosa Parks
#63. All I was doing was trying to get home from work.
Rosa Parks
#64. It takes more than one person to bring about peace - it takes all of us.
Rosa Parks
#65. 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
#66. 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
#67. Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.
Rosa Parks
#68. People need to free their minds of racial prejudice and believe in equality for all and freedom regardless of race. It would be a good thing if all people were treated equally and justly and not be discriminated against because of race or religion or anything that makes them different from others.
Rosa Parks
#69. Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it.
Rosa Parks
#70. I want to be treated like a human being.
Rosa Parks
#71. If I stayed angry at other people, I would miss finding friends among those I was angry with.
Rosa Parks
#72. The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute accepts people of any race. We don't discriminate against anyone. We teach people to reach their highest potential. I set examples by the way I lead my life.
Rosa Parks
#73. When one's mind is made up ... fear diminishes.
Rosa Parks
#74. I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move.
Rosa Parks
#75. My only concern was to get home after a hard day's work.
Rosa Parks
#76. I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free ... so other people would be also free.
Rosa Parks
#77. If you want to be respected for your actions, then your behavior must be above reproach. If our lives demonstrate that we are peaceful, humble, and trusted, this is recognized by others.
Rosa Parks
#78. There is work to do; that is why I cannot stop or sit still. As long as a child needs help, as long as people are not free, there will be work to do. As long as an elderly person is attacked or in need of support, there is work to do. As long as we have bigotry and crime, we have work to do.
Rosa Parks
#79. What really matters is not whether we have problems, but how we go through them. We must keep going on to make it through whatever we are facing.
Rosa Parks
#80. 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 being afraid the house would burn down.
Rosa Parks
#81. My resisting being mistreated on the bus did not begin with that particular arrest ... I did a lot of walking in Montgomery.
Rosa Parks
#82. 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
#83. Nothing in the Golden Rule says that others will treat us as we have treated them. It only says that we must treat others in a way that we would want to be treated.
Rosa Parks
#84. Many whites, even white Southerners told me that even though it may have seemed like the blacks were being freed (by my actions) they felt more free and at ease themselves. They thought that my action didn't just free blacks but them, too.
Rosa Parks
#85. When people made up their minds that they wanted to be free and took action, then there was a change.
Rosa Parks
#86. I thought about Emmett Till, and I could not go back. My legs and feet were not hurting, that is a stereotype. I paid the same fare as others, and I felt violated. I was not going back.
Rosa Parks
#87. 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
#88. I had felt for a long time that, if I was ever told to get up so a white person could sit, that I would refuse to do so.
Rosa Parks
#89. I'm tired of being treated like a second-class citizen.
Rosa Parks
#90. Arrest me for sitting on a bus? You may do that.
Rosa Parks
#91. An opportunity was being given to me to do what I had asked of others.
Rosa Parks
#92. To bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step. We will fail when we fail to try.
Rosa Parks
#93. I thought of Emmett Till, and when the bus driver ordered me to move to the back, I just couldn't move.
Rosa Parks
#94. Without a vision the people perish, but without courage dreams die.
Rosa Parks
#95. I have never been what you would call just an integrationist. I know I've been called that ... Integrating that bus wouldn't mean more equality. 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.
Rosa Parks
#96. As long as there is unemployment, war, crime and all things that go to the infliction of man's inhumanity to man, regardless - there is much to be done, and people need to work together.
Rosa Parks
#98. Whites would accuse you of causing trouble when all you were doing was acting like a normal human being instead of cringing.
Rosa Parks
#99. As long as people use tactics to oppress or restrict other people from being free, there is work to be done.
Rosa Parks
#100. 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
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