“I was a person with dignity and self-respect, and I should not set my sights lower than anybody else just because I was black.”

Each person must live their life as a model for others.

When I see the leadership roles black women are taking today I am very encouraged.

My only concern was to get home after a hard day’s work.

I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move.

Many whites, even white Southerners told me that even though it may have seemed like the blacks were being freed (by my actions) they felt more free and at ease themselves. They thought that my action didn’t just free blacks but them, too.

There is just so much hurt, disappointment, and oppression one can take. The line between reason and madness grows thinner.

I will always work for human rights for all people.

Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today’s mighty oak is yesterday’s nut that held its ground.

There is no future without education.

When people made up their minds that they wanted to be free and took action, then there was a change.

I paid the same fare as others, and I felt violated. I was not going back.

Have you ever been hurt and the place tries to heal a bit, and you just pull the scar off of it over and over again.

I believe we are here on the planet Earth to live, grow up and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.

Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it.

If I can sit down for freedom, you can stand up for children.

I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.

It’s her black wings that make her beautiful.

Perhaps some are confused because they have stereotypes of how blacks should be and I respectfully decline, as I did in my youth, to sacrifice who I am for who they think I should be.

You didn’t think of angels as white or black. They were angels.

She was a restless soul, born with black wings and gypsy heart.

The courts are so willing to assume that anything that is predominantly black must be inferior. The mere fact that a school is black does not mean that it is the product of an unconstitutional violation.

When you look at where the real problems are among minorities in our society, particularly blacks, it’s at the bottom. It’s the people who are in school systems that don’t educate, neighborhoods where there is a lot of crime, drugs, the whole bit.

The myths that are created about the South, about the way we grew up, about black people, are wrong.

Today’s Constitution is a realistic document of freedom only because of several corrective amendments. Those amendments speak to a sense of decency and fairness that I and other Blacks cherish.