The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks Quotes

“When asked what gave her the strength and commitment to refuse segregation, (Rosa) Parks credited her mother and grandfather "for giving me the spirit of freedom... that I should not feel because of my race or color, inferior to any person. That I should do my very best to be a respectable person, to respect myself, to expect respect from others.”
― Jeanne Theoharis, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

“Time and time again, she sought to show the roots—the legitimacy—of black rebellion. It galled her that black people were often told to wait, to be patient and not angry. She had long hated the ways black rebels were seen as freaks or demonized for their refusal to submit.”
― Jeanne Theoharis, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

“To be able to understand how Parks could have said aloud in front of other political organizers that nothing would happen in Montgomery, return to her political work in the community, and then five months later refuse to get up, demonstrates the political will at her core. She might not believe that anything would happen in Montgomery, but that didn’t mean she would not try to demonstrate her opposition to the status quo.”
― Jeanne Theoharis, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

“[Rosa Parks] also found it annoying that people reduced her resistance to segregation to tired feet when her feet were never the problem--the problem was injustice.... And she didn't like that she was only known for that day on the bus when she held a lifetime of political experiences.”
― Jeanne Theoharis, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

“To be an activist for racial justice in the 1940s meant working without any indication that your efforts would be realized in your lifetime. It meant struggling against the fear and nihilism that white supremacy produced in order to continue tilling the soil for a mass movement to be able to flower. For a person like Rosa Parks, whose stand on the bus would come to be seen as ushering in a glorious new chapter of civil rights history, it first meant imagining that there could be a story, finding others who agreed, and then painstakingly writing it, word by word, for more than a decade to get to the good part.”
― Jeanne Theoharis, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

“to [Rosa Parks], a united front was key to black struggle. Rosa Parks' enduring commitment to racial justice and human rights formed a bridge between the civil rights struggle in Montgomery and black liberation in Detroit.”
― Jeanne Theoharis, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks