The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks (1913-2005) was born in Alabama. Her mother encouraged her daughter to pursue education, and her family instilled in her a sense of pride and the desire to enact change. Parks devoted her life to activism. Although she is best known for her stand on a Montgomery bus, Parks spent 10 years prior to this date working tirelessly for the civil rights movement, advocating for victims of white abuse and violence, fighting unjust and inequitable voting practices, and educating youth to challenge systems of oppression. On December 1, 1955, Parks refused to move from her seat on the bus when she was ordered to stand so a white man could sit. She was arrested, and she became an important symbol of the civil rights movement who was constructed as a demure and ladylike representative of nonviolent resistance.

The symbol of Parks is only one small part of her life’s work and rich legacy. She suffered from the backlash of the bus boycott and her activism. She and her family moved to Detroit to escape red-baiting and racist violence, and she continued to pursue change in the North, which she saw as not very different from the South in its racism. Parks never stopped being an activist. Theoharis’s work explores how the symbolization of Rosa Parks differed from the complexities of the real woman’s life.

Ella Baker (1903-1986) was a civil rights and human rights activist who challenged complacency and the organized leadership of the NAACP. She worked behind the scenes to accomplish the goals of the civil rights movement, and she emphasized grassroots movements of empowering people to enact change in a collaborative effort. She was inspired to fight for justice after listening to her grandmother’s stories of being an enslaved person in the American South.

Baker highly influenced Parks, who met her at an NAACP leadership conference that Baker organized. Parks admired her admonishment of senior leadership of the NAACP and of the sexism within the organization. Baker was a major proponent of the small chapters of the NAACP, emphasizing the importance of their work. Parks viewed her as a friend and a mentor and cited her as a major influence on her life.

James Blake (1912-2002) was the bus driver whom Parks defied in her protest on December 1, 1955. He ordered her to move so that a white man could sit. When she refused, he phoned his administrator, who told him that he must make Parks move. Blake phoned the police and pressed charges against Parks, even after being cautioned that such a decision was a mistake. He resented the public attention that followed him after the bus boycott.

Later, with a photographer while doing a photo shoot for Look magazine, Parks boarded a bus that Blake was driving. The two did not speak to one another. After his death, Blake’s wife detailed the ways that the incident with Parks haunted her husband. Many Black bus drivers spoke about how Blake attempted to redefine his life and became an ally.

Claudette Colvin (1939) was a civil rights activist who participated in Rosa Parks’s youth programs and was a member of the NAACP Youth Council. Colvin was a passionate and fiery young activist. On March 2, 1955, months before Parks’s similar act of protest, Colvin refused to move from her seat on a Montgomery city bus. She was charged with assault on three officers. Her act of protest mobilized many around her, and the 15-year-old nearly became the face of the bus boycott. However, Nixon did not believe she was the right person to take on the role. After he decided that Colvin would not be the symbol of the movement, she became pregnant. Colvin and four other plaintiffs, with lawyer Fred Gray, challenged the city’s bus laws as unconstitutional, and the United States Supreme Court ultimately affirmed a decision to that end.

Like Parks, Colvin suffered due to her activism. After Brown v. Gayle, it was difficult for her to find work. Eventually, she became a nurse and devoted her life to the profession. Colvin said she understood why Parks became the symbol of the movement. However, her efforts and contribution played a key role in the response to Parks’s arrest: One of the reasons the city rallied around Parks was out of frustration that nothing changed after Colvin was arrested. She paved the way for Parks and the bus boycott.

John Conyers (1929-2019) was a U.S. Representative for the Democratic Party who served for 52 years. Parks worked on his first successful campaign, helping the young civil rights attorney secure a position as the sixth Black Congressperson in the House of Representatives. She convinced Martin Luther King, Jr. to travel to Detroit and endorse Conyers; this was the only political endorsement he ever made.

Parks worked for Conyers from 1965 until 1988, when she retired. Her work for him focused on civil rights issues. In 2007, Conyers was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, recognizing him for political achievements. His legacy was impacted by sexual misconduct allegations that led to his resignation from Congress in 2017.

Virginia Durr (1903-1999) was a civil rights activist and close friend of Parks. Durr and her husband were highly involved in political activism, and their involvement contributed to their financial struggles and outcast status in white society. She was also ostracized and investigated as a communist during the McCarthy era’s “Red Scare.” Durr was instrumental in securing Parks a place at the Highlander Folk School, where she felt inspired to increase her own activism in the civil rights movement.

Durr was a lifetime friend and supporter of Parks. After the bus boycott, Durr engaged in an endless letter-writing campaign, challenging Parks’s supporters and peers for their refusal to assist the woman who played such a significant role in the movement. She admonished the NAACP and the MIA for financially benefiting from Parks’s activism but abandoning her during her time of need.

Fred Gray (1930) was an American civil rights attorney and activist. Gray was an important figure in the civil rights movement and won several landmark cases, including Browder v. Gayle. Gray obtained his bachelor's degree from Alabama State College for Negroes and his law degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 1954. He worked as a preacher before his time as an attorney. He worked with numerous civil rights figures, including E. D. Nixon, Parks, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Whenever she was asked about her contribution to the civil rights movement, Parks was quick to draw attention to the names of the many others who sacrificed and worked for the cause. Gray’s name was always included in that list. Parks and Gray spent time together during lunch each day, and he defended her when her refusal to give up her bus seat went to trial. Gray also defended Colvin and others during Browder v. Gayle. 

Myles Horton (1905-1990) was an American educator whose work with the Highlander Folk School is recognized for its contribution to the civil rights movement. He founded the school to promote adult education and activism. It brought Black and white people together to tackle modern problems of racism and discrimination. The school was responsible for sparking protests across the South and challenging the KKK.

Parks credited Highlander Folk School for its profound influence on her life and activism. By the time she attended the two-week program on a scholarship to find ways to enforce the landmark ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, Parks was feeling defeated by her work as an activist. The school introduced her to a new way of looking at the world. There, Black and white people ate together and shared the same rooms. Parks felt inspired that things could change, and she returned to her work in Montgomery with new vigor. She remained in touch with Horton throughout her life and continued to support the school.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) was a civil rights activist and preacher who became a central figure of the civil rights movement. He oversaw the Montgomery bus boycott and devoted his life to advocating for civil rights. Theoharis’s book explores how King’s involvement in the bus boycott and his rise to fame are partly due to the influence of Parks. Like hers, King’s legacy is a mixture of his role as a symbol and his complex reality. Known as the father of nonviolent protest, King also empathized with Malcolm X and militant Black activists, and he was ready and willing to defend himself if needed. Parks’s decision to remain seated on the bus provided a platform for King, and she encouraged him to utilize it.

Like Parks, King was under the thumb of constant surveillance, scrutiny, and harassment. He was assassinated in 1968. His death rattled the Black community and the civil rights movement. The news devastated Parks, and she was frustrated with how quickly his death became its own narrative, another contribution to the fable of the civil rights movement.

Malcolm X (1925-1965) was a civil rights activist and important figure in the civil rights movement. He is often presented as a foil to King’s philosophies and approaches. However, the two men shared many of the same principles and admired each other’s advocacy. Malcolm X was a spokesperson for the Nation of Islam, a religious and political organization for Black nationalism. He was assassinated in 1965.

Parks admired Malcolm X and his philosophy of activism. She also believed that more than nonviolent protest was needed and understood the importance of self-defense and pushing back. The two met each other on three separate occasions. Malcolm X, who had profound respect for women and trusted their advice and wisdom, deeply admired Parks. 

Leona Edwards McCauley was Parks’s mother. She was a schoolteacher who instilled in her daughter the importance of education and the pursuit of knowledge. She chose to enroll her in a special school with white teachers. Although the school closed early and presented a problematic curriculum, the education Rosa received there had a profound influence on her. When Nixon spoke with Parks’s family about utilizing her as a symbol for the movement, Leona understood and supported her daughter’s decision. However, helping to field constant harassing phone calls took its toll on Leona, and her mental and physical health suffered. Leona wanted to be closer to her son, and she convinced Rosa and Raymond to move to Detroit.

Parks cites Leona as a strong moral influence who instructed her daughter about the failures of structures to provide equal and fair treatment. Leona wanted her daughter to become a teacher like her; although Parks took a different path, her activism was inspired by her mother’s own acts of resistance. Before Parks’s act of protest on the bus, she witnessed her own mother’s refusal to move on a bus and watched as she challenged the bus driver’s threats. 

E. D. Nixon (1899-1987) was an American activist during the civil rights movement. He was a union organizer who helped organize the bus boycott and position Parks as a symbol of the civil rights movement. Nixon and Parks worked together during the 10 years prior to the bus boycott. He was the president of the NAACP and helped establish the MIA. Nixon took a hard line with his activism and challenged the complacency of senior leaders of the NAACP. After the boycott, he bemoaned his treatment in the NAACP and MIA; Parks’s reputation was tied to his assertive tactics.

After the bus boycott, Parks’s friend Durr admonished Nixon for failing to help Parks when she was in dire need. Nixon’s views of her was constrained by intense gender bias, and he failed to acknowledge the sacrifices and work of the woman behind the symbol. In 1985, Nixon received the Walter White Award from the NAACP.