Rosa Parks interview (1995)

I was arrested on December 1st 1955 I was refusing to stand upon the orders of the bus driver after the white seats had been occupied in the front and I cuz I was not in the front the bus as many people and many people have written and spoken that I was that I got on the bus and took the front seat but I did not I took the seat that was just back of where the white people was sitting and in fact the last seat and a man was next to the window and I took the eyes seat and they were to in across and we've been on understood until about the second third stop when some white people boarded the bus and there one man standing and when the driver noticed I'm standing he told us to stand up and let him have a seat he referred to them his front seats and when the other three people after some hesitancy stood up he won't know if I was going to stand up to him I was not and he told me he would have me arrested I told him he may do that and of course he did he didn't move the bus and it bothered him where we were and went out of the bus I'll sit in the dome and several people got off didn't and white people get up at the similarly black people got off and shortly thereafter he the two policemen came on the bus and one asked me if the driver had told me to stand and I said yes and he won't know why I didn't stand I told him I didn't think I should have to stand up and then I asked him why did they push us around and he said and I quote him I don't know but the law is a law and you are under yes and with that I got off the bus on the rest it was put in the paper that I had been arrested and I throw several people mister et Nixon who was the legal redress chairman of the NAACP the Montgomery branch of the NAACP and he'd been made a number of calls during the night and called a number of Ministers and they said a meeting for this was I was arrested on Thursday evening and on Friday evening it's when they had the meeting at the Dex Avenue Baptist Church about dr. Martin Luther King was a pastor and a number of citizens came and I told them the story and then from then on it became no news about my being arrested and on my trial which is December fear it's when they find me guilty and I was the lawyers Fred gray and child's Langford who were representing me they filed an appeal and of course I didn't pay any fine they set up a meeting at the Hill Street Baptist Church on the evening of our December field because that was a decent of fearful that they the people stayed off in large numbers and did not ride the bus in fact most of the buses I think all of them were just about empty and with the exception later a very very few people and when they found out that one these protests had kept the people off the per se made a well came to a vote actually unanimously decided that they would not ride the buses anymore until changes for the better were made I don't remember feeling that angry but I did feel determined to take this as an opportunity to let it be known that I did not want to be treated in that manner and that be as people had him did it far too long however I did not have at the moment of my arrest in the idea of how the people would react and since we were acting favorably I was willing to go on with with their there's dissolved and of course we found what was known as a Montgomery Improvement Association on the afternoon of December fear and that is when dr. Martin Luther King became their prominent in the movement because he was chosen as a spokesman and the president I'll be my government Improvement Association as I look back on the those days it's just like a dream and I own the plant that bothered me was that we waited so long to make this protest and to let it be known wherever we go but all of us should be free and equal and have all opportunities that others should have when I was arrested I was 42 years old and the there were so many needs for us to continue to work for freedom because I didn't think that we should have to be treated in the way we were just for the sake of white supremacy because it was the design to make them feel and make them feel superior and us feel inferior and that was a whole plan racial info segregation back in Montgomery during my growing up laughs it was like completely legal authority segregation and I thought I struggle together a long time I felt that it was not right to be deprived of freedom when we were living in the home of the brave and the land of the free Post when I refused to stand up on the Ottawa with West driver for a white yes take the seat I was not sitting in the front of the bus as so many people have said and neither was my feet hurting as many people have said but I made up my mind that I will not give him any longer to legally enforce racial segregation and I feel that my regressive brought about the right protest for more than a year and in doing so dr. Monica King became prominent because he was the leader of our protest along with many other people and I'm very glad that this experience that I had been brought about a movement that triggered across the United States and in other places [Music] my mother was warning well my family having saying I'm not gonna my maternal grandparents good with them and I posted my mother was a teacher in the rural school and she believed in freedom and equality by people and did not have the notion that we were supposed to live as we did on the legal info racial segregation she didn't believe in it just by her attitude and her way she talked and that we were human beings and we should be treated as such that's the way I grew up yes yes you and of course my grandfather was had the same ideas whereas my grandmother both of them were born before the Emancipation so slavery ended and they suffered a lot as as you know children doing slavery and it goes after slavery was not that much better but I guess it was something bad I mean they were farmers living in a rural area in the Alabama my mother was a teacher and I did that ten school you know when when she was teaching and of course my very first cheat she looked was a mrs. Santa here and I lacked up there mice in fact I'd like school when I was very young in spite of the fact that it was a and the one-room school for all up for all students all they just from their very young something up to teen as long as they went to school and it was only a short term months at the instead of their regular nine months of year for us want to let you know that all all of us should be free and equal and have the opportunity and that is what I'm trying to instill and encourage and inspire young people to reach their highest potential young people from the ages of 11 to 17 and our main program is the pathways to freedom and we will be going from [Music] Memphis Tennessee through 10 other states and Washington DC and the in in Canada and it begins July 14th and and all over the state and we hope to take as many and young people and their chaperones throughout these areas and stop and have workshops and programs and if they'll be traveling by bus buses rather and we hope that they will inspire give them a sense of history and also to encourage them to be concerned about the help the history and be motivated to reach their highest potential and we all always encourage them to have a spiritual awareness because I feel that with the spirit within and I believe and I was trails and I have a faith in God that we will overcome many obstacles that we could not with negative attitudes I won't always think in terms of being positive and they're being causative and believing in themselves and believing that they should be good citizens and an asset to our our country you know well into the world and I believe in peace too and not violence I think it to believe in yourself and to feel that when you feel like you have the right idea is to stay with it and a toast you know the Pens upon the cooperation of the people around and since people very cooperative and stayed off the buses and from that of course we went on to other things and I along with me the steel who's here with me organize the Rose and Raymond talks Institute's for the Ceph development of cause Raymond being my husband who's not deceased and he was another person who inspired me because he would leave in freedom and equality himself I think the American Dream should to have a good life and to live well and to be a good citizen I think it should have lied to all of us and that it is the land of the free and the home of the brave and I believe it should be just that with all people who can think of themselves as human beings and there they go enjoy the blessings of the freedom of this country we still have a long way to go we still had many obstacles and Rhenish challenges to face and I it's far from perfect and it may never be but I think as long as we do the best we can to improve conditions then low people will be benefited I try to not think those things that we cannot control but I think that we continue to work with positive attitudes that conditions will be better for more people [Music] advice I would give is first of all to rid themselves of prejudice and ill-will against other people and to be concerned about what they can do to help others and opposed to get into the education and take advantage of the opportunities that they have because there are no opportunities in today's youth that I had when I was young and whatever they do to think positively and be concerned about other people as well as and of course I think in terms of them being able to not succumb to many of the temptations especially the use of drugs and substances they'll destroy the health and physical health as well as mental health reasonably we start with them so young is trying to get them before they get into that area and of course it takes a good family life and and those there are those who maybe have straight away and have a sinner and advise them to find some means of helping themselves even if they have gotten into some problems and of course we have so many broken homes now but even those if they can find some means of being encouraged and to try to find some role model that people in schools and in churches whatever means that the Canon of organisations and that's why I believe in organisations in it we need to be organized to wait together instead of being so scattered about and not having any part about the whole night when I first met him it was before I was arrested I met him all of us of 1955 and when he came to be the guest speaker at in any ACP mean when I was secretary I was very compressed with his delivery as a person as a speaker ala and of course his genuine friendliness as a person and his attitude was a coast to work and do whatever he could in the community through his church to make a difference in the way of life we had at that time and I was really impressed by his leadership because he seemed to be a very gentleman and very concerned person and I thought a real Christian

Channel: Manufacturing Intellect

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Id: bqiQqM9nQ0U

Length: 20min 15sec (1215 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 26 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/BoredAttorney]

That's a good one, thanks!

Also, I'm going to guess that you also watched this week's Doctor Who episode, right?