A review by emmkayt
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis

4.0

Excellent biography. Theoharis probes Rosa Parks' iconography (the tired, meek seamstress; a single, unplanned moment ), looking at how it was created and has been deployed both by the civil rights movement and, in more modern times, by those who want to suggest that the US is now 'post-racial.' At the same time, she shows how Parks in fact was much more than her role as a symbol would suggest, having been active in civil rights long before the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, and having continued as an activist in the north after her move to Detroit - admiring Malcolm X, attending Black Power meetings, protesting the Vietnam War. The writing is workmanlike and a little repetitive, but the scholarship is impressive and the content is fascinating. Really glad to have read it.