Rosa Parks by Douglas Brinkley

influences on Parks' protest such as an August 1900 bus boycott, her rides on desegregated buses while working at a military base (all base buses were desegregated), and a previous incident in 1943 with James F. Blake, the same bigoted bus driver she shunned in 1955.

She had decided after being disgraced on his bus never to board any buses he drove ever again. In the earlier incident, Parks entered his bus through the front door because the back was full. With his hand near his gun holster on his hip Blake ordered her to turn around and re- enter through the back door. If she didn't he wouldn't let her on. He tried to push her off, but she "did not struggle. She held her head high and warned him not to strike her; she would exit of her own accord." On December 1, 1955, without realizing it she entered a bus he was driving. Such was the segregated state of Montgomery buses that black passengers were subjected to the "whims of individual drivers," besides "whites" and "coloreds" designated sections the first ten seats were for whites, the 10 closest to the back were for blacks unless whites needed them, and the 16 seats in between were left to the drivers to decide who sat in them -- blacks tried to avoid taking those seats.

The amount of research Brinkley conducted to create his book is impressive. He read many books on black history, the civil rights movement, racism, and key participants in Rosa Parks' life. He interviewed Parks, people who knew her, locals who participated in the Montgomery bus boycott, and prominent blacks who have admired her courage (Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, Colin Powell). He also visited Montgomery establishments and examined press accounts at the time and her personal papers archived at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Douglas Brinkley has written a thorough, insightful book about one of this country's greatest civil rights leaders.

Brinkley's previous books include: The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter's Journey Beyond the White House, John F. Kennedy and Europe, and The Majic Bus; An American Odyssey. He is a NPR commentator and Professor of History and director of the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans.

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