Protesting with Rosa Parks: From Stagecoaches to Driving While Black [Paperback]

JOHN K. BOLLARD is the author of ten books and served as the managing editor of the African American National Biography at Harvard University’s W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African American Research. Bollard has a PhD in English from the University of Leeds and has written extensively on medieval Welsh literature and history.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.A history of civil rights protests and the activists who fought discriminationProtesting 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 to put his body on the line repeatedly in the name of freedom was truly revolutionary. When we see someone today protesting inequality, at risk of being vilified, beaten, and arrested, we are witnessing the legacy of David Ruggles and the others in this outstanding book.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 givl#�