"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

The NAACP Image Award winning book that has helped redefine the public understanding of the civil rights icon-revealing her to be a radical and committed activist

2014 NAACP Image Award Winner- Outstanding Literary Work - Biography / Auto Biography

2013Letitia Woods Brown Award from the Association of Black Women Historians

Choice Top 25 Academic Titles for 2013

The definitive political biography of Rosa Parks examines her six decades of activism, challenging perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement

Presenting a corrective to the popular notion of Rosa Parks as the quiet seamstress who, with a single act, birthed the modern civil rights movement, Theoharis provides a revealing window into Parks's politics and years of activism. She shows readers how this civil rights movement radical sought-for more than a half a century-to expose and eradicate the American racial-caste system in jobs, schools, public services, and criminal justice.