Political Quotes

“Mr. President, over a half century ago, Rosa Parks sparked a revolution in American race relations when she decided that she would no longer tolerate the humiliation and demoralization of racial segregation on a bus. The strength and spirit of this courageous woman captured the consciousness of not only the American people but the entire world. Her stand on that December day in 1955 was not an isolated incident but part of a lifetime of struggle for equality and justice. Twelve years earlier, in 1943, Rosa Parks had been arrested for violating another one of the city's bus related segregation laws requiring blacks to pay their fares at the front of the bus then get off of the bus and re-board from the rear of the bus. The driver of that bus was the same driver with whom she would have her confrontation years later. Rosa Parks, by her quiet courage, symbolizes all that is vital about nonviolent protest, as she endured threats of death and persisted as an advocate for the simple, basic lessons she taught the Nation and from which the Nation has benefitted immeasurably. The bus boycott which Rosa Parks began was the beginning of an American revolution that elevated the status of African Americans nationwide and introduced to the world a young leader who would one day have a national holiday declared in his honor, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. February 4, 2013, marks the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Rosa Parks.…”