I want to be treated like a human being.
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 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.
Whatever my individual desires were to be free, I was not alone. There were many others who felt the same way.
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.
I thought of Emmett Till, and when the bus driver ordered me to move to the back, I just couldn’t move.
The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.
If I stayed angry at other people, I would miss finding friends among those I was angry with.
I had been pushed as far as I could stand.
I did not get on the bus to get arrested I got on the bus to go home.
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.
As long as people use tactics to oppress or restrict other people from being free, there is work to be done.
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.
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.
When people made up their minds that they wanted to be free and took action, then there was a change.
An opportunity was being given to me to do what I had asked of others.
I’m tired of being treated like a second-class citizen.
I was ready to die but give my consent never. Never, never.
I had been pushed as far as I could stand to be pushed. I had decided that I would have to know once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen.