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Searching... Stillwater Public Library | J 921 PARKS | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
"Even those familiar with her name will realize on reading this engrossing account how little they really know of Parks's life and the events that surrounded the dawning Civil Rights movement. Setting her historic refusal to give up her seat on a bus in the context of a life that began in 1913 in rural Alabama dramatizes the fact that her action came at a time and place that gave it the force to challenge the rigors of a lopsided system of justice. Few will be unmoved by the tactics employed by whites to disrupt the subsequent boycott; at the center, always, is Parks's dignified, calm recounting of outrages against her and other women and men, giving her words weight and impact as no raw fury could. Like sitting at the knee of an elder with much to tell, reading her story leads to ever more questions ('What was it really like then?') and shock that such injustices not only existed in the recent past but still linger." - Kirkus Reviews
Author Notes
Civil rights activist Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She attended the Montgomery Industrial School, which emphasized domestic sciences such as cooking, sewing, and caring for the sick. She married Raymond Parks in 1932 and was one of the first women to join the Montgomery branch of the NAACP in 1943. On December 1, 1955, Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man and was arrested and fined for violating a city ordinance. Her actions inspired 50,000 blacks in Montgomery to boycott the city buses for a year until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the segregated busing policy was unconstitutional.
She moved to Detroit, Michigan with her husband in 1957 and served as a secretary/ receptionist for U.S. Representative John Conyers from 1965 to 1988. She founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, which sponsors an annual summer bus trip around the country for teenagers to learn the history of their country and the civil rights movement. She received numerous awards during her lifetime including the NAACP's Springarn Medal in 1979, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999. She died on October 24, 2005 at the age of 92.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Many readers of this absorbing autobiography will be familiar with the incident for which Rosa Parks is best known: on December 1, 1955, she refused to surrender her seat to a white person on a Montgomery, Ala.,stet comma/rl city bus. What this book provides is a framework that will enable its audience to put this historic moment into a broader context, and to appreciate the monumental effect on one woman and on an entire nation. Long before Parks's stand against racial segregation, her ``very strong sense of what was fair'' had provoked her to launch her own personal campaign against injustice. In lively anecdotal style, she describes her early family life and schooling, her run-ins with disdainful white children, her courtship and marriage to Raymond Parks and her active role in the Montgomery NAACP and in the civil rights movement. The simplicity and candor of this courageous woman's voice make these compelling events even more moving and dramatic. Some readers will be stunned by Parks's firsthand accounts of violence against blacks; all will be deeply impressed by her boundless energy and courage. All ages. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Phot. With quiet dignity, this remarkably brave woman from Montgomery, Alabama, describes her upbringing, her early involvement with the NAACP, and the pivotal events of December 1955, when she was arrested for sitting at the front of the bus. Parks's life encompasses the civil-rights movements from the forties to the sixties, and readers will absorb much history and gain understanding from reading her personal account of activism and change. Ind. From HORN BOOK 1992, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Gr. 6-10. Rosa Parks may or may not be the mother of the civil rights movement--the title makes her a little uncomfortable. What is irrefutable is that she was instrumental in fueling a movement that would forever change the way blacks and whites live together in the U.S. Parks' story reads and moves like rich oral history, telling of a time when blacks toiled in the fields for pennies and nobody wore shoes but "the hoss [horse] and the boss." As a girl growing up in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa was keenly aware of her lowly status. However, she had models of strength and perseverance in her mother and grandmother that served her well; later, Rosa was a devoted worker for the NAACP when the kitchen was most women's only domain. Upon hearing Rosa Parks' name, many people remember that day in 1955 when she refused to give up her seat on a crowded, segregated bus. With determination, she struggled through the nearly yearlong process that finally culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on Montgomery buses was unconstitutional. The account includes recollections of individuals who were key to the civil rights movement, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Roy Wilkins, and many photographs that chronicle Parks' life and times. This straightforward, uncompromising autobiography is told with the kind of unflinching honesty and dignity embodied by Rosa Parks. (Reviewed Dec. 15, 1991)0803706731Denia Hester
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-6-- This well-known story is considerably refreshed by Parks's personal narrative, punctuated by numerous black-and-white photographs. In simple, gracious, compelling language she describes her childhood, family life, and elusive educational opportunities. She explains how her husband encouraged and supported her participation in civil rights activities, and provides with clarity the generally paltry regard for the contributions of black women by the movement's organizers. In this recounting of her life, she corrects some media-created distortions of events. Her references to so many people may overwhelm some readers at times, but this does not diminish the overall impact of a wonderful, warm autobiography.-- Helen E. Williams, formerly at University of Maryland, College Park (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Even those familiar with her name will realize on reading this engrossing account how little they really know of Parks's life and the events that surrounded the dawning Civil Rights movement. Setting her historic refusal to give up her seat on a bus in the context of a life that began in 1913 in rural Alabama dramatizes the fact that her action came at a time and place that gave it the force to challenge the rigors of a lopsided system of justice. Few will be unmoved by the tactics employed by whites to disrupt the subsequent boycott; at the center, always, is Parks's dignified, calm recounting of outrages against her and other women and men, giving her words weight and impact as no raw fury could. Like sitting at the knee of an elder with much to tell, reading her story leads to ever more questions (``What was it really like then?'') and shock that such injustices not only existed in the recent past but still linger. B&w photos, chronology, & index not seen. (Autobiography. 10+)
Table of Contents
| 1 How It All Started | p. 1 |
| 2 Not Just Another Little Girl | p. 22 |
| 3 Schooling in Montgomery | p. 38 |
| 4 Marriage, and Activism | p. 55 |
| 5 We Fight for the Right to Vote | p. 71 |
| 6 Secretary of the NAACP | p. 80 |
| 7 White Violence Gets Worse | p. 90 |
| 8 "You're Under Arrest" | p. 108 |
| 9 "They've Messed with the Wrong One Now" | p. 125 |
| 10 Stride Toward Freedom | p. 141 |
| 11 We Move to Detroit | p. 161 |
| 12 The Years Since | p. 176 |
| Chronology | p. 189 |
| Index | p. 190 |
