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Today marks the 113th birthday of the fearless and courageous Rosa Parks. Born on Feb. 4, 1913, Parks is honored each year for her pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement. Across the United States, many public transportation systems commemorate her legacy through Transit Equity Day, sometimes offering free rides or symbolically reserving seats on buses and trains in recognition of her historic refusal to surrender her seat in 1955.

Rosa Parks’ Birthday: Celebrating a fearless activist.

What is often overlooked is that Rosa Parks was already a seasoned activist long before that defining moment. Deeply involved in grassroots organizing, she had supported 15-year-old Claudette Colvin, who months earlier had also refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus.

According to NewsOne, Rosa Parks, born Rosa Louise McCauley, grew up in Tuskegee, Alabama. She attended an industrial school for girls and later enrolled at Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes (now Alabama State University), leaving school to care for her ill grandmother. But growing up in the Jim Crow South wasn’t easy. She faced racism and violence firsthand.

The challenging environment would inspire her to take part in community activism early.  At just 19 years old, Parks married Raymond Parks, a barber and dedicated activist. Together, they worked alongside numerous social justice organizations, and Rosa eventually became secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. By the time she boarded the bus in December 1955, she was not simply a quiet protester, but a respected strategist and leader within Alabama’s Civil Rights Movement. Her arrest helped ignite the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a landmark campaign that reshaped the fight for racial justice and put an end to segregation on public transportation in the city. 

Reflecting on that courageous feat, Parks previously said, “People always say 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 42 No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in. I felt that if I did stand up, it meant that I approved of the way I was being treated, and I did not approve.”

Rosa Parks spoke with wisdom, conviction and fearlessness whenever she addressed the power of resisting inequality and injustice, words that continue to inspire many today. As we celebrate Rosa Parks’ birthday, here are 10 quotes from the Civil Rights icon that will inspire anyone to take the lead, resist and make change today. 

The post 10 Rosa Parks Quotes About Courage, Justice, And Resistance appeared first on MadameNoire.



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