When I look at Rosa Parks in the various photographs, she radiates an inner warmth, a glow. She seems to me to be internally prepared and restrained. But above all, I always sense an inner laugh, a feeling of love and strength that emerges.

Rosa Parks touches me not only as a courageous activist in the African-American civil rights movement. On December 1, 1955, she was the third woman to be arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, because she refused to relinquish her seat on a bus for a white passenger. This act of civil disobedience led to a mass movement in the form of the bus boycott in Montgomery and, along with other protests, is considered the beginning of the civil rights movement in the United States. Nearly a year after her arrest, the segregated-bus ordinance was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

I am also very touched that Rosa Parks, who has experienced so much injustice, discrimination, humiliation and threats of violence in her life, has adhered to her belief in us humans. She continued her engagement with great humility towards her role in the civil rights movement for many years. 

Rosa Parks has never given up hope that one day all people – regardless of origin or skin color – will be treated justly and will be free. Working together to develop our society concerns all human beings.