Frasi di Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks
Data di nascita: 4. Febbraio 1913
Data di morte: 24. Ottobre 2005
Rosa Louise Parks è stata un'attivista statunitense figura-simbolo del movimento per i diritti civili, famosa per aver rifiutato nel 1955 di cedere il posto su un autobus a un bianco, dando così origine al boicottaggio degli autobus a Montgomery.
Frasi Rosa Parks
„From my upbringing and the Bible I learned people should stand up for rights just as the children of Israel stood up to the Pharaoh.“
Quoted in The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, by Jeanne Theoharis (2013)
„I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day, but I don't think there is anything such as complete happiness. It pains me that there is still a lot of Klan activity and racism. I think when you say you're happy, you have everything that you need and everything that you want, and nothing more to wish for. I haven't reached that stage yet.“
Quoted in "Standing Up for Freedom," Academy of Achievement.org (2005-10-31)
„I did not want to be mistreated, I did not want to be deprived of a seat that I had paid for. It was just time… there was opportunity for me to take a stand to express the way I felt about being treated in that manner. I had not planned to get arrested. I had plenty to do without having to end up in jail. But when I had to face that decision, I didn't hesitate to do so because I felt that we had endured that too long. The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became.“
"Parks Recalls Bus Boycott, Excerpts from an interview with Lynn Neary", National Public Radio (1992), linked at "Civil Rights Icon Rosa Parks Dies" http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4973548, NPR, October 25, 2005.
„God has always given me the strength to say what is right… I had the strength of God and my ancestors with me.“
Quoted in The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, by Jeanne Theoharis (2013)
„People always said 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.“
Rosa Parks: My Story, p. 116, Rosa Parks and James Haskins (1992)
„I'd see the bus pass every day… But to me, that was a way of life; we had no choice but to accept what was the custom. The bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black world and a white world.“
Quoted in 2008-07-01, The Story Behind the Bus, Rosa Parks Bus, The Henry Ford http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/rosaparks/story.asp, (2002)
„I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.“
Quoted in "Women of the Hall: Rosa Parks," http://womenshalloffame.org/women.php?action=viewone&id=117 Women's National Hall of Fame (undated); said upon her 77th birthday (1990-02-04)
„The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.“
Rosa Parks: My Story, p. 116, Rosa Parks and James Haskins (1992)
Contesto: People always said 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.
„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.“
Quoted in "Standing Up for Freedom," http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio-1 Academy of Achievement.org (2005-10-31)
