One woman’s refusal and four simple words changed America’s history forever.

“No I am not,” said civil rights figure Rosa Parks, after refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery city bus in 1955.

Samara Johnson, an 18-year-old senior at Iowa Christian Academy in West Des Moines and the actor playing the young Parks in “Rosa Parks,” echoes the words of the well-known activist.

“The most difficult part of this play is the bus scene, because the lines are very powerful and are supposed to change everything,” Johnson says. “It’s only four words, but I have to completely transform myself into Rosa.”

“Rosa Parks,” directed by John Viars, is a multimedia production that includes pictures of scenes from various civil rights movements. The play also features such protest songs as “Precious Lord,” “I Shall Not Be Moved” and “We Shall Overcome,” says Ruth Ann Gaines, who plays the older version of Parks in the play.

It is a documentary, so to speak, says Gaines, drama teacher at East High School in Des Moines. The play is told through the reminiscent narration of the older version of Parks, while the younger version acts these memories out on stage.

“The message of this play is to stand up for what you believe in,” Gaines says. “You don’t have to make a whole lot of noise in order to be strong. I identify with Rosa’s quiet strength, and when I am up there, I really believe I am Rosa Parks.”

The play not only teaches about Parks’ bus struggle, Johnson says, but also about the struggles she went through before and after the famous bus scene. For example, Gaines says, Parks was turned down twice before she was allowed the right to vote.

“I think it is important for us to know about Rosa Parks’ life, because it teaches us how to stand up against negativity in our lives,” says Edwin Harris, junior in art and design and vice president of the ISU Black Student Alliance. “We need to understand what different races have gone through so we are not as ignorant when we talk to each other.”

Harris says he believes the struggle for civil rights and equality has come a long way, but still has a long road ahead.

“I think the best way to get rid of racism is to get hatred out of homes,” Harris says.

Gaines says racism is still alive and healthy — it is just on a different level.

“Now there is institutional racism,” Gaines says. “It is just more subtle and harder to fight. We need to get more minority people in places of power in our city, state and national governments.”

Gaines plans on doing just that, by taking her role as a civil rights activist offstage and applying what she has learned to real-life politics in her campaign for Des Moines City Council.

“I use lots of her lines in my campaigns — Rosa Parks 2004. My favorite line is ‘Just listen to the messages in the wind and you do what ya gotta do,'” Gaines says. “I have really become stronger and more focused since I have played Rosa. I am learning through her, by playing her.”