Shades of History:
The Montgomery Bus Boycott/Beyond Black and White

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Biographer

Mrs. Rosa Parks being fingerprinted by Deputy Sheriff D.H.Lackey in Montgomery, Alabama. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Your Role

A biographer tells the story of someone's life. Someone in this role is interested in how a person is shaped by the people and events in his or her life as well as how that person influences the world around him or her. In addition to getting information directly from the subject of a biography, biographers try to find out about their subjects through people who knew them.

Rosa Parks is often referred to as "the mother of the civil rights movement." Your job is to find out more about this important historical figure and bring your expertise back to your group. As you read, view, and listen, look for what surprises you, what you think is most interesting and important, and what you want to know more about, and try to make note of information obtained from primary sources.

Questions

• Who was Rosa Parks? What happened in Rosa's life before she was arrested on December 1, 1955 that might have influenced her actions on that day?
• What is Rosa's view of the events of her arrest? Why did she do it?
• If you had been in Rosa's shoes, what do you think you would have done? Have you ever been in a similar position where you did something that involved taking big risks in order to achieve a goal? What did you lose? What did you gain?

Resources

• Rosa Parks: How I Fought for Civil Rights from Scholastic
• The Torchbearer Rosa Parks from Time 100
• Rosa Parks from Stanford's Martin Luther King Papers Project
• Rosa Parks: Pioneer of Civil Rights from the Academy of Achievement
• Rosa Louise Parks Biography from the Rosa & Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development
• A Tribute to Rosa Parks from the Highlander Research and Education Center

For a place to take notes as you do your research, please print the Biographer Worksheet.

© 2004-2010 Marielle Palombo