The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa ParksThe Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

2014 NAACP Image Award Winner: Outstanding Literary Work – Biography / Auto Biography

2013 Letitia Woods Brown Award from the Association of Black Women Historians

Choice Top 25 Academic Titles for 2013


The definitive political biography of Rosa Parks examines her six decades of activism, challenging perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement

Presenting a corrective to the popular notion of Rosa Parks as the quiet seamstress who, with a single act, birthed the modern civil rights movement, Theoharis provides a revealing window into Parks’s politics and years of activism. She shows readers how this civil rights movement radical sought—for more than a half a century—to expose and eradicate the American racial-caste system in jobs, schools, public services, and criminal justice.

This definitive political biography of Rosa Parks examines her six decades of activism, challenging perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement. "In the first sweeping history of Parks's life, Theoharis shows us that Parks not only sat down on the bus, but stood on the right side of justice for her entire life.” —Julian Bond, chairman emeritus, NAACP.
Examines the historical icon's six decades of activism, challenging perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement.