Rosa Parks: A Life

Penguin Lives

by Douglas Brinkley

An eminent historian follows Rosa Parks from her childhood in Jim Crow Alabama through her early involvement in the NAACP to her epochal moment of courage and her afterlife as a beloved--and resented--icon of the civil rights movement.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Race, Social Justice, African American, Biography Memoir

Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Douglas Brinkley is a professor of history at Rice University and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. The Chicago Tribune has dubbed him “America’s new past master.” His most recent books are The Quiet World, The Wilderness Warrior, and The Great Deluge. Six of his books have been selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. He lives in Texas with his wife and three children.

Reviews

[farahxreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

”Not all of them were hateful, but segregation itself is vicious, and to my mind there was no way you could make segregation decent or nice or acceptable.”

Called the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks made history by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. This act of defiance is considered to be the catalyst of American civil rights movement in the United States which leads to a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system, led by Dr Martin Luther King.

Author Douglas Brinkley does an exquisite summary of Rosa Parks life. From the book, I have come to know that Parks had a defiant streak from the start, as one of her childhood friends put it: ”Nobody ever bossed Rosa around and got away with it.” The book further explores her involvement with the NAACP, important events that took place scarce months before Parks’s refusal to give up the seat, the relationship she had with other prominent activists at this time and what followed after the boycott ended.

I’m actually quite suprised to learn that this is the first biography of Rosa Parks written by an historian. Only a few illustrated children’s books and the worthy Rosa Parks: My Life, an autobiography writen targeted for young adults which lacked the neutral historian’s perspective. Hats off to Brinkley for taking the initiative and doing a very good job of research and writing here.

Overall, a great read that provides great insight on the struggle for civil rights equality, a struggle that is sadly, far from over. Rosa Parks is such an amazing woman, with amazing perseverance, with even more amazing heart. Thank you for what you did, Rosa Parks; humanity was really lucky to have people like you. Rest in peace.

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of the very few biographies on Rosa Parks that has been written for adults. Brinkley does a fine job of covering the life of Parks from childhood through death. His focus is on her work with the NAACP and the fight for civil rights. It all culminates with her iconic refusal to move to the back of a bus in the segregated town of Montgomery, AL. That stand, or sit in this case, is but one small part of her contributions to civil rights. Her work throughout her life earned her the moniker "mother of the civil rights movement."

It is obvious, by Brinkley's description of Parks, that she was a wonderful, kind woman who could seem shy and meek but had gumption when it was needed. I am surprised that so little has been written about her. She was about more than just that one defiant moment on a bus. She worked hard and spent her life fighting for voting and civil rights for African Americans. Her contributions should not be ignored.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Growing up I learned little about Rosa Parks. It always seemed like her contribution to the Civil Rights Movement began and ended with one act of defiance. This bio taught me so much about Parks’ behind the scenes activism both before and after the Montgomery bus boycott, as well as the early Alabama movement in general.
At times, Brinkley’s word choices were unfortunately “slangy” but I’m assuming this was a misguided attempt to make his book more accessible and less academic. I’m overlooking the sometimes jarring writing style because of the well researched content.

[Bookish Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

On December 1st, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama a black seamstress named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in to a white patron and was arrested. What seemed like a small act by a quiet, unassuming woman who just wanted to sit down and relax after a long day of work, inspired a year-long boycott of Montgomery’s bus system. The boycott lead to the rise of the civil rights movement, many changes to laws and the Jim Crow-era of the South and the activism of various civil rights icons like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And it was all due to an unassuming little seamstress.

Sure, Rosa Parks was unassuming and she did work as a seamstress. But she was so much more, which historian and author Douglas Brinkley writes about in his biography of Mrs. Parks called Rosa Parks: A Life.

Rosa McCauley was born on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her mother, Leona, was a school teacher, and her father, James, was a carpenter. They separated when Rosa was a toddler. A smart, studious and quiet girl, Rosa excelled in school and studied at Alabama State College for Negroes for a while. But do to family issues, she had to drop out. She soon met and married Raymond Parks, who worked as a barber.

To those who didn’t fully know Ms. Parks, it would seem she would be the type to live a low-key life. She was not to make a fuss, and December 1st, 1955 was just anomaly for this shy woman.

But we would be wrong. Ms. Parks spent a majority of her adulthood involved in civil rights and other social causes. She fought for her right to register to vote, finally succeeding in 1943. She worked as a secretary for the NAACP. After facing death threats in Alabama, she and her husband moved north to Detroit where she continued her involvement in the civil rights movement. She networked with other notable figures in the movement including Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Congressman John Conyers, working as Representative Congressman’s Detroit office. Her comrades were involved in all races, creeds, genders and included people of all ages. Brinkley’s books exhaustively researches all the notable hard work and achievements Ms. Parks did on behalf of the civil rights movement, and I found myself in more in awe of this amazing woman.

Mrs. Parks later wrote her autobiography and a book inspirational ideas and essays called Quiet Strength. She also got involved in women’s causes and acted as a mentor to young people, many of them finding her a truly inspirational force for them to also make positive changes in their lives and the lives around them.

A life-long devoted Christian, Mrs. Parks was also interested in Buddhism and meditation.

Mrs. Parks also chronicled her life and activism in her autobiography and wrote a book of inspirational ideas and essays called Quiet Strength. And throughout her life she received countless awards for her tireless work on behalf of the civil rights movement and other accomplishments.

Rosa Parks: A Life was published before she died in 2005. But it truly conveys how courageous, hard-working and generous she was in a very turbulent time. I’ve long admired Mrs. Parks and Mr. Brinkley’s slim, yet incredibly thorough and illuminating biography is one very enlightening read that should be a must-read for everyone committed to justice for all.

Originally Published a the Book Self:
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[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise biography of Mrs. Rosa Parks, with a focus on the roots and development of her activism. Certain parts of her story get much more details than others (her time in Montgomery fills about half the book, and then the rest of her life is condensed). A solid primer on who the real Rosa Parks was.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cannot get my book group to read this, but sure wish I could! It's neither encyclopedic nor droning. Historian Brinkley uses clear, direct prose to present a surprising picture of a woman we all thought we knew--the tired seamstress who couldn't take it any more. But no: Parks is a true original: She a revolutionary through and through, and the effort she expends trying to understand the world around her, and make a difference in that world, is inspiring. She's dodging the conformity of the 1950s at every turn, whether in her work life, her personal life, or in her work as secretary to the local NAACP.

[Bryan Cebulski · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful primer on Rosa Parks. Concise where it's not comprehensive. Douglas Brinkley is able to seep into the times he's writing about while still maintaining a scholarly tone. I'd hoped for something maybe more engaged with Parks on a personal level (the way Rick Perlstein treats Nixon, Goldwater and Reagan in his books), but then again I think Brinkley understood that Parks' experience as a black woman in American was far from his own as a white man, and thus kept a respectful distance in his writing.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting insight into the life of Rosa Parks as told through a somewhat dry, academic point of view. Here we read all the facts about her life before during and after that historical bur ride that set so many things in motion, including raising the profile of Martin Luther King.

It made me want to read Rosa's own story, it lacked the emotional insights of a good biography or even a fictional account that could life to the woman under the historical events that surrounded her.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nearly every American is taught the role of Rosa Parks in the Civil Rights movement. The basic outline of the story is known. The full story, and the contribution of this woman, is unknown to most. Regarding her action, “Eldridge Cleaver, author of Soul on Ice, noted of that winter day: ‘Somewhere in the universe, a gear in the machinery shifted.’” This is a wonderful way to think about her central place. She was not the first person, however, to have such a moment of civil disobedience to the racial segregation policies of Jim Crow. She was different than the others, however. She had indisputable moral character and a quiet dignity. It was because of these reasons that she became the test case, and inspired her community, to support her against vitriol and violence. Interestingly, the 1955 bus boycott was not the first in Montgomery. In 1900 there was a successful 5 week boycott protesting unfairness and discrimination. Unfortunately, however, the victory won by that boycott had been fully rolled back through the enforcement of Jim Crow and the intimidation by white supremacists.

“Faith in God was never the question for Rosa Parks; it was the answer. All her life she disagreed with novelist James Baldwin’s strident claim that ‘to be black in America is to live in a constant stage of rage.’ The teachings of Jesus Christ had convinced her instead, as they had Martin Luther King, Jr., that a heart filled with love could conquer anything, even bigotry.” Montgomery itself, incidentally, provided much of the support for developing the character of Rosa Parks. “But what made Centennial Hill special—what drew future civil rights leaders, such as Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King, Jr., to make the neighborhood their home—was its abundance of progressive educational institutions for blacks: the Swayne School, Centennial Hill High School, the State Normal School for Colored Students (now Alabama State University), and Miss White’s Industrial School for Girls, which together trained the generation of civil rights activists who would emerge in the 1950s.” As she grew into adulthood, she experienced a little bit of a world devoid of the worst parts of segregation. “It was, in fact, a U.S. military base that showed Rosa Parks, who had never left Alabama, how fair American society could be. ‘You might just say Maxwell opened my eyes up,’ Parks believed. ‘It was an alternative reality to the ugly racial policies of Jim Crow.’”

Still, when she left the base, she was confronted by racism’s ugly face. She was shamed and embarrassed by the same bus driver years before her refusal to move in 1955. “The first encounter with Blake has often been overlooked by historians. The square-off’s importance, however, cannot be denied, for it was the same James F. Blake who was driving the Cleveland Avenue bus twelve years later when Parks once again refused to budge, with far greater consequences. In the dozen years after her first taste of his bigotry, out of pride she never boarded a bus that Blake was driving. Textbook accounts of her momentous stand of December 1, 1955, generally neglect to mention that the drama unfolded in large part because Parks had absentmindedly boarded Blake’s bus that day, and that her act of civil disobedience was partly the result of her personal revulsion toward one particular bus driver.”

So what did make her decide that she had had enough? “Just about everyone who hears the story of Rosa Parks asks the same question: Was her refusal to give up her seat premeditated? Did she intend to become the NAACP’s test case against segregation? The answer to both is no. Rosa Parks did not wake up on the morning of December 1, 1955, primed for a showdown over civil rights with the local police. A lifetime’s education in injustice—from her grandfather’s nightly vigils to the murder of Emmitt Till—had strengthened her resolve to act when the time came. What arose in Parks that fateful evening was her belief in what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., often said: that ‘some of us must bear the burden of trying to save the soul of America.’ On her way home that night, Parks had no intention of making the headlines or history: She was thinking about relaxing for a rare moment, proper her feet up on the sofa, listening to a couple of Christmas carols, and preparing for that evening’s NAACP Youth Council meeting. But when a white man tried to use an unfair system to undermine her dignity, Rosa Parks realized that it was her burden to stay put. ‘Just having paid for a seat and riding for only a couple blocks and then having to stand was too much,’ she told the Highlander Folk School’s executive committee at a meeting a few months later. ‘These other persons had got on the bus after I did. It meant that I didn’t have a right to do anything but get on the bus, give them my fare, and then be pushed wherever they wanted me…. There had to be a stopping place, and this seemed to have been the place for me to stop being pushed around and to find out what human rights I had, if any.’” Certainly there is room in her background to ask the question. She was a supporting member of the leadership of the NAACP, and worked for years to support the organization. The Highlander Folk School was a fairly radical group itself, and her friends included progressive radicals (I want to draw a distinction, however, to the modern connotation of the word “radical” – her friends believed in radical change by lawful, peaceful means).

It is interesting that she was overlooked many times by her contemporaries, while simultaneously being sainted by them.“Never the prima donna, her genuine dignity made her shine even in the erudite, college-educated company of King, Nixon, Gray, and Abernathy. Parks shared their nobility and passion but added to them the profoundest humility, gentleness, and decency. She may have lacked her cohorts’ vocabulary and worldliness, but part of her lasting appeal is that nobody ever had a bad word to say about her. And she returned the favor, as her friendships with Graetz, the Durrs, and other whites showed: Parks harbored no race bias or any other uncharitable suspicions in her open mind or in her truly good soul. It was these same qualities, of course, that made it impossible for her not to fight for what is right.” “In many ways the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycott was a crusade. And to have Parks, the epitome of a good Christian woman, as a rallying symbol made it far easier for the ministers to bolster morale. If a day laborer’s feet got so tired that he thought of riding the bus, all he had to do was mutter, ‘Rosa Parks,’ and the temptation would be gone. While NAACP members in the North saw Parks as an ordinary woman who one day did an extraordinary thing, in Montgomery she was regarded as a divine messenger. As Fred Gray would write, ‘She gave me the feeling that I was the Moses that God had sent to Pharaoh.’ It helped, of course, that at forty-two years old Parks was also a natural maternal figure to the young ministers and lawyers who led the boycott: Gray was only twenty-five, King was twenty-six, and Abernathy was twenty-nine.”

In the end, however, she felt she needed to move to Detroit so as to find work for herself. She also tired of the jealous actions of the men, who seemed to claw for fame and would chauvinistically complain about her prominence. She experienced this multiple times. “Parks found the entire event [the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom], including King’s soaring oratory, tainted by a male chauvinism every bit as ugly in its discrimination as Jim Crow. ‘Nowadays, women wouldn’t stand for being kept so much in the background,’ she wrote in My Story, ‘but back then, women’s rights hadn’t become a popular cause yet.’ Upon returning to Detroit in 1963, however, Parks became more vocal for women’s rights while paradoxically maintaining many old-school customs, such as always serving men their dinner first.” There are some aberrations later in her life that Brinkley glosses over. She became a fan of Malcom X and his brand of nationalism that seems to me at odds with the peace-loving, integrationist approach Brinkley portrays her as taking throughout the rest of the biography. Additionally, she through herself behind the support of John Conyers, a politician with a checkered history in hindsight, as well.

These items aside, there is no doubting that Rosa Parks was a more special woman than she is given credit for. Her role and influence accomplished truly wonderful things that did serve to improve the soul of America. Brinkley beautifully and fittingly ends with an anecdote of Nelson Mandela. After being largely forgotten to be included in a delegation to meet with Nelson Mandella, a friend arranged for her to stand at the front. She believed she didn’t need to be there and she was nervous. “He won’t know me,” she said to her friends as she was escorted onto the tarmac. “Moments later the airplane’s door opened and Nelson Mandela…appeared and waved to the enthusiastic crowd shouting, ‘Viva Nelson!’ and ‘Amandla!’ the Swahili word for ‘power.’ Slowly he made his way down the steps and toward the receiving line. Suddenly he froze, staring openmouthed in wonder. Tears filled his eyes as he walked up to the small old woman with her hair in two silver braids crossed atop her head. And in a low, melodious tone, Nelson Mandela began to chant, ‘Ro-sa Parks. Ro-sa Parks. Ro-sa Parks,’ until his voice crescendoed into a rapturous shout: ‘Ro-sa Parks!” Then the two brave old souls, their lives so distant yet their dreams so close, fell into each other’s arms, rocking back and forth in a long, joyful embrace. And in that poignant, redemptive moment, the enduring dignity of the undaunted afforded mankind rare proof of its own progress.”

See my other reviews here!

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rosa Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) said of this song, ‘his smooth voice was like medicine to the soul’ she played it as she waited to travel to Memphis after Dr. King was assassinated.
A Change Is Gonna Come, by Sam Cooke

I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh and just like the river I've been running ev'r since
It's been a long time, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will
It's been too hard living, but I'm afraid to die
'Cause I don't know what's up there, beyond the sky
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will...


This is a wonderful read about a wonderful woman.

[Brice Fuqua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite her fame and importance to the civil rights movement, this 2005 book was the first biography of Parks. Though known for her role in the Montgomery bus boycott, Brinkley shows that her commitment to equality predated that incident.
Brinkley began this book while Parks was still alive but he was unable to interview her. That's the main flaw with this book. There is much that is unknown about her early life that could have been filled in had Brinkley been able to talk to Parks. As is, this short book is the main source of information about the iconic civil rights hero.

[Faith Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rosa definitely had a complicated life. She grew up with most of the time separated parents. She lived with her grandparents for a good bit. She worked hard everyday in school to get her life somewhere. She was mistreated by many people growing up due to the color of her skin. One day she got sick of it on the bus. The seats were overflowing and she refused to give her seat up to a white. She wound up getting into lots of trouble for something that is entirely to stupid. She was a feminist and now someone to look upon and say wow she was the real G.O.A.T.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book debunks the myth that Rosa Parks was just a good-hearted middle-aged seamstress who was simply so tired one day that she refused to give up her seat on the bus home from work. This is the story of an iconic figure known as the Mother of the Modern Civil Rights Movement whose struggle, determination, and quiet strength moved an entire nation to take a look at themselves in the mirror, and see the truth for what it was and on many accounts of what it still is.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone looking for a lesson on a life well lived, on being brave, on being a citizen, on principles should read this. Hearing the segregation stories and what African Americans dealt with are worth keeping top of mind always. Hearing how Rosa Parks couldn't vote despite on paper she could, is worth keeping top of mind always. Knowing she was a principled civil rights activist and not just a tired seamstress is also worth knowing.

[Sheila McCarthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never knew much about the lady except that she refused to move to a different seat, but this book reveals much more about her and the life she led after that refusal. Great heroine and she was very much involved with the movements and also was close with Martin Luther King Jr. And Nelson Mandela~! Quite a women I'll say! Good read for those interested in this historical woman of our time.

[Ilana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't a big fan of how much this book focused on the Durrs but I certainly learned some things about what the boycott meant to Rosa Parks and her life before and after as an organizer and defender of freedom

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

#22 of 120 books pledged to read during 2018

[Dpalange44 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book about an amazing woman. Like many others, I had falsely believed that Ms. Parks was a tired seamstress that day. Instead of a tireless advocate for equal rights.

[kjade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moving story and great historical overview.

[Howard Brooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not biography; this is hagiography. I have never read a more adoring account of a life.

[Sam McBratney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this biography! It highlights Rosa Parks' Methodist faith as well as the difficulties she faced after the boycott. Thoroughly recommend it as readable and insightful.

[Prima Seadiva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook. Reader okay.
I found this book to be fairly interesting. There were some things and events in Rosa Parks life, especially after the bus seat event, that I had not known so it was informative in that respect. There are so many books about this woman that I have not read so I can't compare or rank this in relation to other biographies but it does give you a sense of her life outside the event she is beat know for.

[Kim. E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

What comes to mind when you hear the name Rosa Parks? If it's the same as myself it is the ionic photograph of Rosa sitting inside a bus looking outside the window as if searching for answers beyond the explained. I used to imagine what existed behind those eyes for Rosa, what her life must have been like in Montgomery, Alabama during the turbulent Civil Rights era.

Of course, the simple act of refusing to move on a bus to the back because she was black and someone white wanted her seat began a revolution, or did it? According to author Douglas Brinkley (a notable presidential historian) Rosa Parks was not actually the first woman to refuse to give up her seat in the Deep South, but she was the perfect image to carry others on during a time of separate bathrooms, drinking fountains, and sitting in upper balconies during the movies. Rosa Parks was married, a mother, and a churchgoer with a non threatening countenance that was easy to sell in an advertising manner.

Author Douglas Brinkley does a solid job of summarizing the actions that took place following Rosa's arrest for this act of civil disobedience that led to a year long boycott of the Montgomery, Alabama public transportation system. He explores the relationship Rosa had with Martin Luther King, Jr, Malcolm X and other activists at this time.

Further exploration is given to her employment with the NAACP, her traveling throughout her life to spread the message, and her experiences with many well-known people. Her relationship with Nelson Mandela was my favorite. Although we learn about the experiences of her life, little is shared about the personal Rosa,or at least not as much as I would like. I would have liked to know more about her husband and his thoughts on her lifelong activism.

A good initial work on Rosa Parks.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rosa Parks had an unwavering commmitment to working for civil rights for African Americans. The event for which she is famous--her refusal to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama bus to a white man--was a relatively early occurrence in her very long life. Though Douglas Brinkley does an admirable job of recounting all of the many significant public passions and events in Rosa Parks' life, the woman's private life--her relationship with her husband, her mother, her friends--is not always fully fleshed out, and she is depicted as having few human flaws. Still, because so little of her life apart from her role in the Montgomery bus boycott is widely known, this book provides helpful and interesting background for understanding her personal life and the context for her role in the civil rights movement. The highlight of the book for me came at the end. Rosa Parks, an elderly, almost forgotten, woman then living in Detroit, was actually not included on the initial invitation list for Nelson Mandela's welcoming committee when he visited Detroit. Invited at the very last minute, she was the one person that Nelson Mandela recognized at the airport. The description of the two elderly, famous civil rights warriors who had spent their lives fighting racial segregation on two continents embracing on the tarmac, Nelson Mandela chanting, "Rosa Parks, Rosa Parks, Rosa Parks!" brought tears to my eyes.

[Alanna Maxwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading this book, I realize how much different Rosa Parks is than the media makes her out to be; don't worry! Rosa Parks was a more generous, quiet, innocent, modest, humble woman who was in the right place at the right time to really get the civil rights moving. At the time, Rosa, and others, most likely thought she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that is severly incorrect. Rosa Parks has taught all of us, the United States and the world, an important lesson: always be humble in all that you do, and have faith. Have faith in people, have faith in religion, have faith in a positive future. Rosa had faith that everything would work out in the end, no matter how much pain and suffering there had to be.
Douglas Brinkley wrote this book like a cross between a novel and a biography. I surprised myself astoundingly within the first night of reading this book; usually it's very difficult for me to read such large words and minimal paragraphing, but I found myself lost in this book. Douglas Brinkley just has a way of weaving large words with smaller ones to communicate an idea. The text was enjoyable and was rarely dry at times. I would recommend this to anyone wanting to take an enjoyable break and go back in time.

[Carol Jones-Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was quite old before I had ever heard the name of Rosa Parks, and then the role she has played in segregation and the civil rights movement. I hadn't been born yet by one year when she famously refused to stand for a white person to take her seat on the bus. Douglas Brinkley, author of this book, has really told an interesting story that helps to explain the many things that went on behind the scene that help me the reader to understand the many things going on during that time. Martin Luther King, Jr. became in influential force at this time, and Rosa Parks, whom many of us thought of as the seamstress that took the bus to and from work each day is actually a driving force in the political world. I was very surprised at the role she and others played. Recommend if you like this type of literature.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always admired Rosa Parks, though I knew very little about her life aside from the bus boycott, and I didn't even know all the details of that. This book does a great job filling in the details of how she came to that point in her life, the people who inspired her along the way, and also the activism as well as her life after.

Those who love detailed history will like this book. There was so much detail and facts that I felt like a lot of it went over my head, but I learned some very interesting things about Rosa Parks and the entire movement that I didn't know before. I definitely have even more respect for her now.

Not something I would probably re-read as I'm not a huge fan of non-fiction, but definitely a great reference book to keep on hand.

[Amelia Huang]

It seems like this book is all about segregation.It was all about the "blacks" and the "whites." They could never be together and the whites treated the "blacks" like they were better then them.Rosa Parks wanted to stop segregation.She wanted to show everyone that she could stand up for herself.She wasn't gonna be ordered around by the white people anymore.Her move was really powerful towards a lot of people but no one really cared.she broke the Jim Crow law by not giving up her seat to a white man.She was sent to jail but that movement was something a lot of people could remember.It was a strong enough move to stop segregation.It showed people that everyone should be equal.

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brinkley does a great job of describing the times and people who helped make Rosa Parks who she was. When she was a child she was schooled by Mrs. White’s School for girls. There were no high schools for colored children in the county where she lived. The AME Church also influenced her beliefs. Although she received little formal education she read heavily from newspapers and books. Mrs. Parks is described as restrained and lady like. This made her the idea candidate for the court case to challenge segregation of public buses. Even though she had no children of her own many looked up to her as a maternal figure. This biography is a fitting tribute to her memory.

[Rachelle Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for a class and although I found Rosa Park's story inspiring, it was a hard book to get through. Certain chapters seemed too dry and impersonal and I found myself engaged more when the author would quote Parks herself instead of trying to explain her life. One component that I loved was Brinkley showed both the amazing qualities of Parks and her struggles and not-so-great components. Brinkley gave readers a true picture of Parks' life and how life is like in America for an African American female. For me, this was an interesting snapshot especially taking into consideration all the racial strife in our nation currently.