Rosa Parks: The 'no' that sparked the civil rights movement | BBC News — Transcript

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1. 0:03it was about 6:00 in the afternoon I was
2. 0:06arrested for refusing to give my seat to
3. 0:08a white male passenger on the orders of
4. 0:10the bus driver the bus was organized
5. 0:12with racial segregation the white
6. 0:14passengers to the front in the color to
7. 0:16the rear and the bus driver of course
8. 0:18would move or rearrange his passengers
9. 0:21to his wishes would order some persons
10. 0:25to give up their seats for white
11. 0:27passengers who had to stand and he
12. 0:29ordered did you yes he did and then what
13. 0:32happened when I refused to move he had
14. 0:34me arrested put in jail and the bus
15. 0:37driver was he very violent or no he
16. 0:39wasn't he just called a policeman When U
17. 0:44I refused to stand up and what was the
18. 0:46attitude of the police well they
19. 0:48questioned me about why I refused to
20. 0:51give up the seat and when I told them I
21. 0:54didn't believe I should have to give up
22. 0:56the seat they told me I was under arrest
23. 0:58it was all done quite easily or was
24. 1:00there violence or anger there was no
25. 1:03violence nor anger on the part of any of
26. 1:05us involved at that
27. 1:08time I did this because I felt I was
28. 1:12being violated as a human being I had
29. 1:15had a hard day of work on the job and I
30. 1:19was physically tired as well as just
31. 1:22mentally vexed and sick of this type of
32. 1:28thing we had to endure as a people
33. 1:30because of our race it did not seem
34. 1:33right it wasn't right and I felt that I
35. 1:36was being mistreated we knew that she
36. 1:39was going to be
37. 1:40convicted uh but what was more important
38. 1:43than her case per se whether or not she
39. 1:46was convicted or not was the fact that
40. 1:49between the time she was arrested on
41. 1:52Thursday and the time of the trial on
42. 1:56Monday the black community had become so
43. 2:00upset and Disturbed over the bus
44. 2:03situation and over Mrs P's arrest until
45. 2:06we had concluded that this simply was it
46. 2:10the straw that broke the camels back and
47. 2:13that we were going to stay off of the
48. 2:14buses until we could get some type of
49. 2:17consideration I think if there was any
50. 2:20one point or one event in the civil
51. 2:23rights movement that started in the 50s
52. 2:25you can pinpoint it to the momery bus
53. 2:28Boyard and Mrs pars who's here and the
54. 2:32and which was symbolized by this
55. 2:34courtroom and her conviction in
56. 2:37it