Protesting with Rosa Parks details the history of the intersections between Black activism and travel over a span of one hundred and ninety years. John K. Bollard recounts the experiences of more than ninety-five civil rights leaders and private citizens who protested against segregation on stagecoaches, trains, streetcars, steamboats, buses, planes, cars, and even elevators--people like David Ruggles, John Lewis, Sandra Bland, and Tyre Nichols. While recognizing the historical significance of Rosa Parks, this book reveals her refusal to move as part of a long tradition of protest that strives to guarantee everyone the right to ride on our collective journey towards equality.
"Protesting with Rosa Parks is deeply informed by the lives, and at times the deaths, of nearly a hundred African Americans as they traveled the country. This book is a model of how biography can bring social history to life across a span of almost two hundred years. Of special note is David Ruggles, in effect the first 'freedom rider,' a significant thinker and strategist whose willingness
Steven J. Niven
"The fight for justice didn't start or end with one person but by the blood shed by countless individuals. I was a fifteen-year-old girl when I refused to give up my seat, but I knew it was my constitutional right, and I wasn't breaking any laws except the unwritten Jim Crow law of segregation. This history is about more than a bus seat; it's about standing up against a racist system that had oppr
Claudette Colvin
"While Rosa Parks has been venerated for her instrumental role in the Civil Rights Movement, John K. Bollard's Protesting with Rosa Parks shows her courageous actions have deep roots in the Black protest tradition. Having unearthed lesser-known stories of resistance to segregated public conveyances, Bollard's book demonstrates the centrality of such efforts within broader movements to end slavery,
