Reixma's Reviews > Rosa Parks: My Story

⚠️** THIS BOOK USES WORDS AND DESCRIPTIONS DEEMED INAPPROPRIATE TODAY **⚠️

I will be using BIPOC in this review as I don't feel it is appropriate to use 'black' on it's own as a descriptive term. I feel using BIPOC is more accurate.

I read this book in order to find out more about Rosa but in her words as I'd heard so much variety about her story and wanted to find out for myself. I wrote so many notes about the contents of this book, so I will try and summarise my review.

I learned a lot from this book and found the description and details of life from Rosa's perspective to be very insightful and shocking at the same time. It has really highlighted how much I think I know and am aware of with regards to racism, supremacy and attitudes to BIPOC people. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants an insight into how things were and what changes were made. It will certainly help to gain an understanding of some of the challenges faced, and what attitudes and behaviours have been utilised to stay alive in a hostile environment where you are judged purely by your skin colour.

Further details and thoughts about the book are below:

This book is Rosa Parks autobiography and is told in her words. Its honest, and very insightful as she discusses what life was like living in Montgomery, Alabama while she was growing up and trying to navigate her way through life in segregated America where white supremacy was still ingrained.

Rosa makes reference to her great-grandparents who were slaves until the end of slavery in 1865 and how her grandparents and parents would educate her on the correct way to behave around white people, and how to keep a low profile. You can see in the book how she finds it hard at times to follow her parents and community's advice at times, and wants to break out of the segregation.

There were not many schools in Montgomery, and those that did exist did so because they were built by the BIPOC community and had to fund and run it themselves. Schools for white people were funded by public funding and were maintained by the state so there were more of them and they were predominantly for white communities. Rosa strives to get an education and to complete her studies despite interruptions caused by family health. Health services were also less available.

It was not unheard of for buildings and properties in BIPOC communities to be damaged or destroyed by white people. This was normal... Rosa mentions how when she was asked how she managed to live with that kind of fear, but that was the only way she knew.

One thing I found very interesting was how in the South, white people were treated by the white community if they mixed with the BIPOC community. They would be shunned and labelled Communist, even though there was little or no evidence to support this. White school teachers would be shunned, but now they are honoured or held in high esteem. How things have changed...

Rosa describes how she met her husband, Raymond, and how he was a member of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) and how they worked hard to try and represent people who faced racial discrimination. She also describes how BIPOC communities have to deal with the police and not drawing attention to themselves, and how the KKK would be very active in racial hatred and persecution.
Rosa also talks about the Black Muslims and how they preached white hatred, which went against the teachings of Islam, and so they were shunned by Muslims who are non-racist. Some who were part of this extreme sect did convert to 'true' Islam to escape the prejudice and to change their ways, but they had to remain quiet so not to draw attention to themselves and be a victim themselves. We're talking about the 1960's here!

Rosa did not plan to be the one to start the petition for BIPOC rights to seating on buses, rather she just didn't want to be disrespected anymore. Others had tried before to refuse to give up their seat to make a point of highlighting the injustice of it all, but these had been unsuccessful and ignored.
The boycott toward the buses was planned as BIPOC passengers accounted for two thirds of passengers, so to get this many passengers to not use the buses would cause major problems as it was these passengers who faced the most amount of discrimination and violence. The boycotts were picked up in other states around the U.S which did cause unrest as it was still generally deemed unacceptable for BIPOC communities to have many rights, let alone the same rights as white people.
Through this book, you see how more rights are granted to BIPOC people and communities, but it is really made clear at how hard these victories are so hard won, and often only done through severe compromise. One example is when after the boycott of the buses, one of the requests was that the buses be split into thirds, so the first 10 seats are for whites, the rear 10 for BIPOC and the middle set are taken on a first-come-first-serve basis, so its more equal. This was deemed unacceptable by white people and so was not enforced until much, much later, and only through law as segregation on buses in Montgomery was deemed 'unconstitutional'.

I found a couple of other things that I found interesting to note:
○Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. attended some of the NAACP meetings and was inspired by them to try and find a way to bring about integration (his preferred method was non-violence, which was not deemed the best idea by some in BIPOC communities)
○Rosa was not on the front rows of the bus when she refused to move, but was on the front row of the coloured section. White people could override BIPOC passengers even if they were in the coloured section. They had to move back, or get off and take the next bus, thereby giving priority to the white passengers.
○ White people used everything they had, including misinformation to undo what the BIPOC communities were trying to achieve. Common misconceptions were that they were all violent (some were, yes, but not all), and that they were communist.
○The poinsettia is named after the Poinsettia family who were slave owners.

One thing I have noticed from reading this book, is that (certainty in America) while advances to greater equality for the BIPOC community have been made, there is still a great deal of suppression and supremacy in action, and a lot of resistance still.