I thought about Emmett Till, and I could not go back. My legs and feet were not hurting, that is a stereotype. I paid the same fare as others, and I felt violated. I was not going back.
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.
I was determined to achieve the total freedom that our history lessons...
Why do you all push us around?
Victory or defeat? It is the slogan of all-powerful militarism in every belligerent nation. And yet, what can victory bring to the proletariat?
Racial pride and self-dignity were emphasized in my family and community.
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.
All I was trying to do was get home from work.
I will no longer act on the outside in a way that contradicts the truth that I hold deeply inside. I will no longer act as if I were less than the whole person I know myself inwardly to be.
It takes more than one person to bring about peace – it takes all of us.
There is no future without education.
I see the energy of young people as a real force for positive change.
My only concern was to get home after a hard day’s work.
Arrest me for sitting on a bus? You may do that.