"It was not pre-arranged. It just happened that the driver made a demand and I just didn't feel like obeying his demand. I was quite tired after spending a full day working"
About this Quote
"I just didn't feel like obeying" is deceptively soft language for an act that could get you arrested, fired, or worse. That casual phrasing is the subtext: the driver's "demand" is treated as petty, undeserving of reverence. Segregation depends on ritual compliance, on everyone acting as if the rules are natural. Parks punctures that spell by describing the moment as a personal decision, not a grand ideological performance.
The line about being "quite tired" is often misunderstood as mere physical fatigue. In context, it reads as cumulative exhaustion: from work, from disrespect, from the daily choreography of Jim Crow. It also functions as a rhetorical equalizer. Who isn't tired after work? By grounding defiance in a universally legible feeling, she makes the moral stakes impossible to dismiss as exceptional or extremist.
Set in Montgomery, 1955, this modest account also doubles as a rebuke to narratives that demand saints. Parks doesn't present herself as fearless; she presents herself as done. That is exactly why it still lands. It suggests that social change can begin not with perfect bravery, but with one exhausted refusal to play along.
Quote Details
| Topic | Human Rights |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Parks, Rosa. (2026, January 15). It was not pre-arranged. It just happened that the driver made a demand and I just didn't feel like obeying his demand. I was quite tired after spending a full day working. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-was-not-pre-arranged-it-just-happened-that-the-65403/
Chicago Style
Parks, Rosa. "It was not pre-arranged. It just happened that the driver made a demand and I just didn't feel like obeying his demand. I was quite tired after spending a full day working." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-was-not-pre-arranged-it-just-happened-that-the-65403/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"It was not pre-arranged. It just happened that the driver made a demand and I just didn't feel like obeying his demand. I was quite tired after spending a full day working." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-was-not-pre-arranged-it-just-happened-that-the-65403/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.






