Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

You may go on and do so

Rosa Parks — but not in these words Rosa Parks 1913–2005 · Civil rights organiser and seamstress, Montgomery, Alabama
Disputed wording — the moment is real and hers; this phrasing is not the one she recorded. In copyright

The exchange is real. On 1 December 1955 the driver James F. Blake ↗ told Parks he was going to have her arrested, and she answered him. But the words in her own account are shorter than the version that circulates: “You may do that.” Wikiquote’s sourced entry ↗ prints the full exchange in that form, while the longer “You may go on and do so” sits in the Unsourced list on its talk page ↗, where an editor notes that her memoir Rosa Parks: My Story gives the four-word reply.

Last verified 18 Sep 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed wording — copy with the correction

“You may go on and do so” Rosa Parks answered the driver on December 1, 1955 — but her recorded words were "You may do that," not "You may go on and do so." — Quotle.info

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by The estate of Rosa Parks and her publishers). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the themes of courage, justice and character. Theme: "You may go on and do so". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "You may go on and do so". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

What she recorded saying

The moment
Cleveland Avenue bus, Montgomery, Alabama, 1 December 1955
Spoken to
James F. Blake, the driver
Wording in her own account
“You may do that.”
Status of “You may go on and do so”
Unsourced — a later, longer retelling

The driver of the bus saw me still sitting there, and he asked was I going to stand up. I said, “No.” He said, “Well, I’m going to have you arrested.” Then I said, “You may do that.”

The exchange as Wikiquote’s sourced Rosa Parks entry ↗ prints it. Four words, not six — and no “go on”.

Wikiquote: Rosa Parks, sourced quotations

How we verified this

  • The sourced wording — Wikiquote’s Rosa Parks entry ↗ carries the exchange with the driver in its quotations section and renders her reply as “You may do that.”
  • The circulating wording — “You may go on and do so” appears on Wikiquote only in the Unsourced list of Talk:Rosa Parks ↗, alongside an editor’s note citing Rosa Parks: My Story (p. 116) for the shorter reply.
  • The encounter itself is not in doubt — Wikipedia’s article on James F. Blake ↗ documents the 1 December 1955 confrontation, his order to the four seated passengers and his decision to call the police.
  • What we could not do — every scanned copy of Rosa Parks: My Story on the Internet Archive ↗ is lending-restricted, so we could not read page 116 ourselves. The page-116 reading here is reported as Wikiquote’s editors give it, not as something we confirmed in the book.
In copyright

Her account of the arrest was published in Rosa Parks: My Story, written with Jim Haskins. The editions catalogued on the Internet Archive are dated 1994 and 1999, far later than the 1931 United States public-domain cutoff, so the text is firmly in copyright. The four spoken words themselves are far too short to carry a copyright of their own; what is protected is her written telling of them.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Right woman, wrong words

Nobody else is being credited here. The dispute is not about who spoke but about what was said — and the version in circulation is two words longer and a good deal more formal than the one she wrote down.

Rosa Parks Her own account

Her reply to the driver’s threat is given as “You may do that” in Wikiquote’s sourced entry ↗ and, per its editors, in her memoir at page 116.

“You may go on and do so” Reworded

Longer and more stately than the recorded reply. Wikiquote holds it only in the Unsourced list on Talk:Rosa Parks ↗.

The exchange itself context

Blake did threaten her with arrest and she did answer him; the documented account of the encounter ↗ is consistent on that.

She said it — in four words. The six-word version is a retelling, and Wikiquote files it as unsourced ↗.

Context

Why the wording matters here

This is the smallest kind of error and one of the most instructive. Nobody has stolen the quote, invented a speaker or moved the date — the sentence has simply been smoothed in retelling, from a curt four words into something that scans more like a speech.

The flatness of the real reply is what people who study the moment keep pointing at. She did not make a declaration; she declined, briefly, and let him do what he had said he would do.

Four words, not six — and the shorter one is harder.

Read the full story

Parks had met James Blake before. In 1943 he had made her pay at the front of the bus and then board by the rear door, and drove off while she was walking round — an incident she remembered clearly. On 1 December 1955 he was driving the Cleveland Avenue bus when he told four seated Black passengers to give up their row.

Three of them moved. Parks moved to the window seat and stayed. When Blake said he would have her arrested, she answered, and he called the police. Her arrest that evening set the Montgomery bus boycott in motion within days.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Courage Justice Character

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Rosa Parks — sourced quotationsen.wikiquote.org

Carries the bus exchange with her reply as “You may do that.”
Talk:Rosa Parks — Unsourceden.wikiquote.org

Lists “You may go on and do so” as unsourced, with an editor’s note citing My Story p. 116 for the shorter wording.
James F. Blakeen.wikipedia.org

The driver. Documents the 1 December 1955 encounter and his earlier run-in with Parks in 1943.
Rosa Parks: My Story (catalogue record)archive.org

Her autobiography with Jim Haskins — the book the page-116 reading comes from. Lending-restricted, so the text cannot be read here.
Montgomery bus boycotten.wikipedia.org

What the arrest set off: the campaign ran from 5 December 1955 to 20 December 1956, ending with the federal ruling in Browder v. Gayle.
Rosa Parksen.wikipedia.org

Biography, including her NAACP work long before the arrest.

The author

About Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks

1913–2005 · Civil rights organiser, seamstress and NAACP secretary

Rosa Parks had been secretary of the Montgomery NAACP for over a decade before 1 December 1955, and had been put off a bus by the same driver, James Blake, in 1943. Her account of the arrest is notable for how undramatic it is: she describes a short exchange and a flat refusal. The plainness is the point — and it is why the smoother, longer versions of her reply are worth checking.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The primary source (Chicago)

Rosa Parks with Jim Haskins, Rosa Parks: My Story, 116 — the page cited by Wikiquote’s editors for the wording “You may do that.” The exchange is printed in the sourced quotations at Wikiquote, “Rosa Parks.” Editions consulted on the Internet Archive: Scholastic, 1994; Puffin Books, 1999 — both lending-restricted, so page 116 was not read here.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘You may go on and do so’?” Last verified 18 Sep 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/you-may-go-on-and-do-so/

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