Rosa Parks: Day

Rosa Parks was African-American civil rights activist. Explore interesting quotes on day.

Rosa Parks: 44 quotes125 likes

“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, 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.”

Rosa Parks: My Story, p. 116, Rosa Parks and James Haskins (1992)

“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.”

“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.”

Quoted in "Standing Up for Freedom," Academy of Achievement.org (2005-10-31)

“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.”

Quoted in 2008-07-01, The Story Behind the Bus, Rosa Parks Bus, The Henry Ford http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/rosaparks/story.asp, (2002)

“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.”

Quoted in "Standing Up for Freedom," http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio-1 Academy of Achievement.org (2005-10-31)

“Every day before supper and before we went to services on Sundays my grandmother would read the Bible to me, and my grandfather would pray. We even had devotions before going to pick cotton in the fields. Prayer and the Bible, became a part of my everyday thoughts and beliefs. I learned to put my trust in God and to seek Him as my strength.”

Quiet Strength (2000)