Rosa Parks

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__ mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear." - 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 would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free... so other people would be also free.

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

My only concern was to get home after a hard day's work.

You spend your whole lifetime in your occupation, actually making life clever, easy and convenient for white people. But when you have to get transportation home, you are denied an equal accommodation. Our existence was for the white man's comfort and well-being; we had to accept being deprived of just being human.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I was born 50 years after slavery, in 1913. I was allowed to read. My mother, who was a teacher, taught me when I was a very young child. The first school I attended was a small building that went from first to sixth grade. There was one teacher for all of the students. There could be anywhere from 50 to 60 students of all different ages.

All I was doing was trying to get home from work.

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

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

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, 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.