Friend: This Weekend Read illustrates the importance of continuing to teach and learn from foundational Civil Rights Movement history like Rosa Parks’ courageous decision to defy unfair, Jim Crow-era policies and kick off the massively impactful Montgomery Bus Boycott. Her bravery has inspired dozens of authors to muse about her life and influence and the lessons that inform our present-day march for justice.

This month marks the 70th anniversary of Parks’ act of civil disobedience, making it the perfect time to cozy up with a book on Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott from our staff’s hand-picked recommended reading list.

Whether you’re choosing a book for yourself or a young reader in your life, check out our list to find a title you can get excited about — or gift to a friend or family member — this December.

— Colin @ the Southern Poverty Law Center 

Rosa Parks’ defiance — and the boycott it fueled — can teach us in this moment

By Safiya Charles | Read the full story here

Friend,

Each year hundreds of visitors, many of them young students, travel to Montgomery, Alabama, to visit the Rosa Parks Museum at Troy University.

There they learn how, on Dec. 1, 1955, Parks’ refusal to vacate her seat for a white passenger on a crowded city bus would spark a movement, one that helped usher in a new era of civil rights activism. That one act was the first drop in a deluge that would lead to the passage of landmark legislation guaranteeing equal protection under the law.

Four days after Parks’ defiant act, on Dec. 5, 1955 — 70 years ago — the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. With it, the dam of segregation began to break.

“Seventy years ago, Rosa Parks’ quiet act of defiance became a resounding call for justice,” said Lauren Blanding, manager of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Civil Rights Memorial Center, which honors the legacy of civil rights figures and martyrs. “Her courage reminded the world that dignity cannot be denied, and equality cannot wait. As we celebrate the 70th anniversary of this bold act, her legacy challenges each of us to keep pushing for the fairness and freedom she sat down for.”

When visitors enter the Rosa Parks Museum at Montgomery and Molton streets, the site where city police arrested Parks, the doors open to reveal a replica of the bus Parks rode on that fateful day. As the voice of a narrator fills the room, visitors are invited to become bystanders and witnesses to Parks’ courageous act.

This is an experience that retired educator Melba Richardson knows well. Her eldest sister, Betty Bolton Wiens, was also riding the bus on that day in 1955. What she witnessed would have a profound impact on her.

In solidarity,

The Southern Poverty Law Center