An Act of Protest: Rosa Parks in Her Own Words
How the ‘Mother of the Civil Rights Movement’ remembered her refusal to give up her bus seat 60 years ago
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Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Rosa Parks
En español | Since that infamous bus ride on Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks’ story has been told many times, but rarely in her own words. Here are quotes from Parks throughout the years that speak to the event.
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Courtesy The Henry Ford Museum
A Way of Life
“I did not get on the bus to get arrested. I got on the bus to go home.”
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Underwood Archives/Getty Images
A Seamstress by Trade
“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.”
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Dial Books
No More Tired Than Usual
“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, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy)
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Underwood Archives/Getty Images
I Had No Idea
“Since I have always been a strong believer in God, I knew that he was with me, and only he could get me through that next step.” (Rosa Parks speaks at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., 1969)
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Getty Images
It Was Just Time
“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.” (Actress Cicely Tyson presenting Rosa Parks with the Eleanor Roosevelt Woman of Courage Award, 1984)
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Don Cravens/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images
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En español | Since that infamous bus ride on Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks’ story has been told many times, but rarely in her own words. Here are quotes from Parks throughout the years that speak to the event.
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Joe Holloway, Jr./AP
That Next Step
En español | Since that infamous bus ride on Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks’ story has been told many times, but rarely in her own words. Here are quotes from Parks throughout the years that speak to the event.
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Angel Franco/New York Times Co./Getty Images
Looking Forward to a Better Day
En español | Since that infamous bus ride on Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks’ story has been told many times, but rarely in her own words. Here are quotes from Parks throughout the years that speak to the event.
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Corbis
It’s Up to Us
En español | Since that infamous bus ride on Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks’ story has been told many times, but rarely in her own words. Here are quotes from Parks throughout the years that speak to the event.
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courtesy White House
Justice and Prosperity for All
En español | Since that infamous bus ride on Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks’ story has been told many times, but rarely in her own words. Here are quotes from Parks throughout the years that speak to the event.
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En español | Since that infamous bus ride on Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks’ story has been told many times, but rarely in her own words. Here are quotes from Parks throughout the years that speak to the event.
