eBranch Blog

October 31, 2005

Rosa Parks, 1913-2005

Rosa Parks, whom the US Congress called "mother of the modern day civil rights movement," passed away on October 24, 2005. In 1955, she provoked the Montgomery (AL) bus boycott by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. This was one of the first major acts in the civil rights movement. She received numerous honors throughout her life, including the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1999, and in death she is the first woman to lie in repose in the rotunda of the US Capitol.

Rosa Parks. Quiet Strength
Quiet Strength celebrates the principles and convictions that have guided her through a remarkable life. It is a printed record of her legacy-her lasting message to a world still struggling to live in harmony.

Douglas Brinkley. Rosa Parks
Historian Douglas Brinkley, whose "vigorous language" and "marvelous portraits" (Stephen Ambrose) have made him an acclaimed author and a media favorite, brings midcentury America alive in this brilliant examination of a celebrated heroine in the context of her life and tumultuous times. Here in Rosa Parks are the quiet dignity, hope, courage, and humor that have made this twentieth-century everywoman a living legend--an eye-opener of a book for students of history, politics, the black experience, and human nature.

Rita Dove. On the Bus with Rosa Parks
In this dazzling new collection of poems, a much celebrated former Poet Laureate of the United States treats readers to a panoply of human endeavor, shot through with the electrifying jazz of her lyric elegance.

For Youth

Rosa Parks with Jim Haskins. I Am Rosa Parks
The black woman whose acts of civil disobedience led to the 1956 Supreme Court order to desegregate buses in Montgomery, Alabama, explains what she did and why.

Rosa Parks with Gregory J. Reed. Dear Mrs. Parks: A Dialogue with Today's Youth
Presents correspondence between Rosa Parks and various children in which the "Mother of the Modern Day Civil Rights Movement" answers questions and encourages young people to reach their highest potential.

Mary Hull. Rosa Parks: Civil Rights Leader
A biography of the black woman whose refusal to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, led to a bus boycott that helped galvanize the civil rights movement.

Faith Ringgold. If a Bus Could Talk
A biography of the African American woman and civil rights worker whose refusal to give up her seat on a bus led to a boycott which lasted more than a year in Montgomery, Alabama.

Websites

- Biography in Wikipedia

- My Story: Rosa Parks - From Scholastic.com

- Rosa & Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development - Using Park's philosophy of "Quiet Strength," the institute encourages youth to reach their highest potential.

- Rosa Parks Portal - Guide to numerous websites on Ms. Parks.