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In the first sweeping history of Parks’s life, Theoharis shows us...[that] Parks not only sat down on the bus; she stood on the right side of justice for her entire life.
— Julian Bond, chairman emeritus, NAACP
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The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks will undoubtedly be hailed as one of the most important scholarly contributions to civil rights history ever written. … I can’t wait to assign this book in every class I teach.
— Melissa Harris-Perry, host, MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry
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Theoharis brings all of her talents as a political scientist and historian of the civil rights movement to bear on this illuminating biography of the great Rosa Parks.
— Henry Louis Gates Jr.
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The Rosa Parks in this book is as much Malcolm X as she is Martin Luther King Jr.
— Charles Blow, The New York Times
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Richly informative, calmly passionate and much needed.
— Nell Irvin Painter, The New York Times Book Rreview
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How Theoharis learned the true nature of this woman is a story in itself. Parks always stood in the background, never volunteered information about herself and eschewed fame. There were no letters to consult; even her autobiography exposed little of the woman’s personality. She hid her light under a bushel, and it has taken an astute author to find the real Parks. Even though her refusal to give up her bus seat sparked a revolution, Rosa Parks was no accidental heroine. She was born to it, and Theoharis ably shows us how and why.
— Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
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Historian Theoharis offers a complex portrait of a forceful, determined woman who had long been active before the boycott she inspired and who had an even longer career in civil rights afterward.
— Booklist
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Theoharis submits a lavishly well-documented study of Parks’s life and career as an activist.
— Publishers Weekly
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Verdict: This meticulously researched book is for everyone; advanced middle school and beyond.
— Library Journal
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Jeanne Theoharis has written an eye-opening biography of Rosa Parks. It was ideal for the classroom: smart, brisk, and engaging. Best of all, Theoharis explodes all of the clichés surrounding a historical figure whom most students thought they knew. I will assign this book again and again.
— Thomas J. Sugrue, David Boies Professor of History and Sociology, University of Pennsylvania
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Jeanne Theoharis’s Rosa Parks is a pedagogical gift. Clearly written, forcefully argued, and filled with important and groundbreaking historical insights about the civil rights era, black women’s indelible political and intellectual framing of the movement, and the deep-seated black radicalism that undergirded the entire era. A must read book for every course on the civil rights movement.—Peniel E. Joseph, Professor of History at Tufts University and author of Waiting ‘til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America
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Jeanne’s book not only inspired the documentary but has been a catalyst in changing our national understanding of Rosa Parks. Highly recommend!
— Soledad O’Brien, executive producer of the Peabody Award–winning documentary The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks
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Jeanne Theoharis’s Rosa Parks is a pedagogical gift. Clearly written, forcefully argued, and filled with important and groundbreaking historical insights about the civil rights era, black women’s indelible political and intellectual framing of the movement, and the deep-seated black radicalism that undergirded the entire era. A must read book for every course on the civil rights movement.—Peniel E. Joseph, Professor of History at Tufts University and author of Waiting ‘til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America
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