Rosa Parks

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

I have been refused entrance on the buses because I would not pay my fare at the front and go around to the rear door to enter. That was the custom if the bus was crowded up to the point where the white passengers would start occupying.

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

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

Why do you all push us around?

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

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

I'm tired of being treated like a second-class citizen.

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.

I thought of Emmett Till, and when the bus driver ordered me to move to the back, I just couldn’t move.

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

If I stayed angry at other people, I would miss finding friends among those I was angry with.

I knew someone had to take the first step. So I made up my mind not to move.

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.

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.