The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

January 1, 2021

Gr 6 Up-The name Rosa Parks conjures images of her most famous act of defiance: refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus in Montgomery, AL. Readers will see a pattern of rebellion that started when Parks was a young girl and never really ended until her death in 2005. She fought for the rights of Black people, especially Black women, for over 60 years. Parks was one of the few women who held an office in the NAACP. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and she attended the rallies of Malcolm X. The act of protest on the bus, which led to a 381-day bus boycott and the eventual desegregation of public transportation, is only one example of her activism. The full story is more traumatic and heartrending than the textbook portrayal of a tired seamstress who refused to give up her seat. Parks and her family endured criticism, threatening phone calls, and police brutality. After the bus incident, she and her husband were fired from their jobs, which led to their eventual move to Detroit. As much as some readers want to believe racism was exclusive to the Southern states, both Parks and her husband experienced bigotry during their time in Michigan. Parks was often overlooked as a leader during her own time because she was a Black woman. Theoharis and Colbert provide a thorough tome for those who truly want to understand Parks's life. The familiar version most people encounter does not paint an accurate picture of Park's hopes, dreams, struggles, heartbreaks, and successes. The writing style flows seamlessly, drawing readers into the narrative. The addition of journal entries in Park's own handwriting and photos lend to the authenticity of the stories. VERDICT Recommended for all middle grade and YA collections.-Jeni Tahaney, Summit H.S., Manfield, TX

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February 1, 2021
This adaptation of the 2013 adult biography of the same name explores the life and activism of a civil rights icon before and after the incident that made her famous. Parks, renowned for her role as the catalyst in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, was born into a close-knit African American family in 1913 Alabama. Like others, her family was deeply affected by the restrictions of the Jim Crow South and the legacies of slavery. As a child, Rosa watched her grandfather defend the family from the Ku Klux Klan. Her marriage to Raymond Parks connected two people with shared senses of identity and activism. They became members of the NAACP despite the danger; Mrs. Parks eventually co-founded their branch's youth council. She was also active in organizing voter registration and attended leadership training at the Highlander Folk School, where she met others working for justice. By December 1955, when she refused to give up her seat on the bus, Parks was already a seasoned activist, and her community had long been engaged in seeking equality in public transportation. Eventually, she and her husband relocated to Detroit, where she continued her advocacy. This detailed, readable narrative refutes the myth of the accidentally significant historical figure, focusing on the totality of Parks' life as a champion of full citizenship for African Americans as well as the complexities of struggles against White resistance. A nuanced exploration of a woman with a lifelong commitment to social change. (bibliography, image credits, index) (Biography. 12-18)

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November 12, 2012
In her introduction to this biography, Brooklyn College political scientist Theoharis (coauthor of Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles Outside of the South) notes the common perception of Rosa Parks (1913–2005): “hidden in plain sight, celebrated and paradoxically relegated to be a hero for children.” Into that gap, Theoharis submits a lavishly well-documented study of Parks’s life and career as an activist. In tracing her work with the Montgomery NAACP and other groups from the 1930s onwards, and then following her move from Alabama after the 1956 bus boycott to Detroit, Theoharis maps a lifetime devoted to civil rights, thereby destabilizing our notions of Parks as a “tired seamstress” who simply kept her seat on a bus one day in 1955. The “iconography of Parks,” as Theoharis shows, can be used as an entry point for understanding the broader trends in the historiography of the civil rights movement. She notes how the “national fable” of Parks offers “its untarnished happy ending and its ability to reflect the best possibilities of the United States,” thus downplaying more subversive philosophies like the Black Power movement, which Parks also championed. Theoharis calls for a reconsideration of Parks’s legacy and of the movement she, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and others are responsible for initiating. 16 b&w illus.