Bedtime Biography: The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks book cover

Bedtime Biography: The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis Summary

Bedtime Biography: The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks
Jeanne Theoharis
4.08 (1481 Reviews)
Biography
Politics
History
Overview
Key Takeaways
Author
FAQs

Overview of Bedtime Biography: The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

Forget the meek seamstress myth. "The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks" reveals a lifelong radical activist who challenged injustice for decades. As Soledad O'Brien notes, this Kirkus-starred biography has "changed our national understanding" of an American icon hiding in plain sight.

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Key takeaways

1

The Woman Behind the Myth: Rediscovering Rosa Parks

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History has reduced Rosa Parks to a tired seamstress who spontaneously refused to give up her bus seat-a convenient fable that allows Americans to celebrate progress while ignoring persistent racial inequalities. The truth is far more compelling. When Parks died in 2005, becoming the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol rotunda, the woman celebrated in national tributes bore little resemblance to the actual Rosa Parks. The sanitized mythology erases decades of deliberate activism before Montgomery and forty years of political work afterward. As her friends noted with bitter irony, the woman who had been red-baited throughout her life for her radical politics was posthumously transformed into a meek, accidental heroine. In reality, Parks was a seasoned freedom fighter whose December 1955 bus stand represented just one moment in a lifetime of resistance against American injustice-a woman who understood that the price of dignity was often steep but always worth paying.

2

Raised in Resistance: The Making of an Activist

3

"The Toughest Fight of My Life": Building the Movement

4

"I Had Been Pushed As Far As I Could Stand"

5

The Price of Courage: Personal Sacrifice

6

Beyond Montgomery: A Lifetime of Activism

7

The Legacy of a Revolutionary

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