She’s known as the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” and her name – along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr – is among the most recognizable of the civil rights icons.
But Rosa Parks’ story and activism is often reduced to one moment on December 1, 1955: when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, leading to her arrest and the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Parks died in 2005 at the age of 92.
Now, stories like hers’ are in danger of being sanitized or even removed from textbooks and national sites. But historians like Dr. Jeanne Theoharis, professor of political science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, and author of the book, “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks,” are actively trying to provide a more holistic view of Parks’s life, dispelling long-held myths about the activist and illustrating her work before and after that December day.
“Her political vision ranges from challenging school segregation and the lack of Black history, to reparations, to injustices in the criminal legal system, to injustices in U.S. foreign policy from Vietnam to South Africa, to the fears about war after 9/11,” Theoharis said. “So understanding Mrs. Parks – who she actually was – is to see an activist throughout her life.”
One incorrect assumption is that Parks was a shy, demure seamstress too weary from her day’s work to give up her seat. In reality, Parks was an introverted “steel magnolia.”
“It’s almost like a brick in a velvet handbag,” said Dr. Noelle Trent, historian, and president and CEO of the Museum of African American History in Boston and on Nantucket. “You look at the velvet, it looks nice, it looks soft, but when you encounter it, you know that it’s much stronger than its appearance. That’s what we see with Rosa Parks: She does understand the politics of Southern society, like many Black women, and you can use that to engage and disengage when she chooses.”
Many may also not know what happened to Parks after her arrest and the start of the boycott, including extensive harassment that led to lifelong health issues.
“Both Rosa and Raymond Parks will never find steady work in Montgomery ever again,” Theoharis said. “They are a working-class family. And then the year of the boycott with them losing their jobs plunges them deep into poverty.”
The Parks family eventually moved out of Alabama and resettled in Detroit, the city Rosa Parks would call home for the rest of her life.
Parks would continue her life of activism for the next 40 years, advocating for change in movements that had far-reaching goals beyond her lifetime.
“She always talked to children, because she understood that what was at stake was not just for her, but it was for the generations and for a world she could not see or imagine,” Trent said. “She was hoping that she put something forward that would create a better society.”
And Theoharis said one of the most important lessons to take away from Parks was her steadfastness, determination and persistence.
“You keep doing things not because you know which one is gonna work, but … because of the importance of saying, ‘I don’t like it,’ making sure that people understand your dissent, even if your dissent is not going to win the day,” Theoharis said.
Guests
- Jeanne Theoharis, professor of political science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, author of the book, “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks,” consulting producer on the Peacock documentary, “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks”
- Dr. Noelle Trent, historian and president and CEO of the Museum of African American History in Boston and on Nantucket
