The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (Adapted for Young People)

by Theoharis, Jeanne; Colbert, Brandy; Theoharis, Jeanne

• ISBN13: 9780807067574
• ISBN10: 0807067571
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2021-02-02
• Publisher: Beacon Press

Summary

"A must-read for young people.”—Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy

Now adapted for readers ages 12 and up, the award-winning biography that examines Rosa Parks’s life and 60 years of radical activism and brings the civil rights movement in the North and South to life

The basis for the documentary of the same name executive produced by award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien, now streaming on Peacock

A Chicago Public Library’s “Best of the Best Books of 2021” Selection · A Kirkus Reviews “Best YA Biography and Memoir of 2021” Selection

Rosa Parks is one of the most well-known Americans today, but much of what is known and taught about her is incomplete, distorted, and just plain wrong. Adapted for young people from the NAACP Image Award–winning The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, Jeanne Theoharis and Brandy Colbert shatter the myths that Parks was meek, accidental, tired, or middle class. They reveal a lifelong freedom fighter whose activism began two decades before her historic stand that sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and continued for 40 years after. Readers will understand what it was like to be Parks, from standing up to white supremacist bullies as a young person to meeting her husband, Raymond, who showed her the possibility of collective activism, to her years of frustrated struggle before the boycott, to the decade of suffering that followed for her family after her bus arrest. The book follows Parks to Detroit, after her family was forced to leave Montgomery, Alabama, where she spent the second half of her life and reveals her activism alongside a growing Black Power movement and beyond.

Because Rosa Parks was active for 60 years, in the North as well as the South, her story provides a broader and more accurate view of the Black freedom struggle across the twentieth century. Theoharis and Colbert show young people how the national fable of Parks and the civil rights movement—celebrated in schools during Black History Month—has warped what we know about Parks and stripped away the power and substance of the movement. The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks illustrates how the movement radically sought to expose and eradicate racism in jobs, housing, schools, and public services, as well as police brutality and the over-incarceration of Black people—and how Rosa Parks was a key player throughout.

Rosa Parks placed her greatest hope in young people—in their vision, resolve, and boldness to take the struggle forward. As a young adult, she discovered Black history, and it sustained her across her life. The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks will help do that for a new generation.

Author Biography

Jeanne Theoharis is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College of City University of New York and the author or coauthor of numerous books and articles on the civil rights and Black Power movements and the contemporary politics of race in the US. Her books include The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (winner of a 2014 NAACP award) and A More Beautiful and Terrible History (winner of the 2018 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize for Nonfiction 2018). Connect with her on Twitter (@JeanneTheoharis).

Brandy Colbert is the award-winning author of several books for children and teens, including The Only Black Girls in Town, The Voting Booth, and the Stonewall Book Award winner Little & Lion. She is the cowriter of Misty Copeland's Life in Motion young readers' edition. Her books have been chosen as Junior Library Guild selections and have appeared on many best-of lists, including the American Library Association's Best Fiction for Young Adults. She is on faculty at Hamline University's MFA program in writing for children and lives in Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE
A (Shy) Rebel Is Born

CHAPTER TWO
Following Rules and Breaking Some Too

CHAPTER THREE
Introducing Raymond Parks—“The First Real Activist I Ever Met”

CHAPTER FOUR
The Newest Member of the NAACP

CHAPTER FIVE
Organizing in the Face of Opposition

CHAPTER SIX
The NAACP Youth Council Gets a Fresh Start

CHAPTER SEVEN
Resistance + Anger = Seeds of Change

CHAPTER EIGHT
Claudette Colvin Sits Down (and Rises Up)

CHAPTER NINE
Highlander Folk School

CHAPTER TEN
Seeking Justice for Emmett Till

CHAPTER ELEVEN
December 1, 1955

CHAPTER TWELVE
A Boycott Blossoms

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Rosa Parks Goes to Court

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A Yearlong Boycott

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Victory at Last (but the Struggle Continues)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“The Northern Promised Land That Wasn’t”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Rosa Parks Joins the Fight Up North

CHAPTER NINETEEN
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

CHAPTER TWENTY
Working for John Conyers

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Meeting Malcolm X

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Going (Back) Down South

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The Detroit Uprising

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The Assassination of Dr. King

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Black Power!

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Freedom Fighters Never Retire”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The Struggle Continues

Acknowledgments
Selected Bibliography
Image Credits
Index
About the Author
About the Adapter