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Rosa Parks: My Story

3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 · rating details · 400 ratings · 78 reviews

Rosa Parks is best known for the day she refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus, sparking the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott. Yet there is much more to her story than this one act of defiance. In this straightforward, compelling autobiography, Rosa Parks talks candidly about the civil rights movement and her active role in it. Her dedication is inspiring; her st...more

Paperback, 188 pages

Published January 1st 1999 by Puffin (first published January 1st 1992)

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Mar 20, 2013 Marshall Coluzzi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rosa Parks: My Story Book Review
By: Marshall Coluzzi
“HEY GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF THAT WATER FOUNTAIN! THAT’S FOR WHITES ONLY!” How’s that for getting treated with respect? Rosa Parks: My story is a phenomenal book to read if you want to learn about how black history and how they got treated and what they went through back then.
Rosa Parks: My Story is a book mainly about black history and how blacks were treated and tried to have the same rights as whites. In the book there were many parts that...more Rosa Parks: My Story Book Review
By: Marshall Coluzzi
“HEY GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF THAT WATER FOUNTAIN! THAT’S FOR WHITES ONLY!” How’s that for getting treated with respect? Rosa Parks: My story is a phenomenal book to read if you want to learn about how black history and how they got treated and what they went through back then.
Rosa Parks: My Story is a book mainly about black history and how blacks were treated and tried to have the same rights as whites. In the book there were many parts that got my attention in how bad and unfair life was for a black person. One part that showed how unfair life is for a black person was this. Rosa and her brothers were walking home from school and they took a so called “short cut” but that was in a white neighborhood that they should not have been in. There was a white boy outside and saw Rosa and her brothers. He decided to talk some smack to them. Keep in mind blacks got this all the time so Rosa was done with it and said something along these lines, “White boy, you may be able to talk some smack but if you come over here and say it to my face I am going to give you a real beating mister!” That was not a very good and smart thing to do. The boy got so scared that he went inside his house and told his mother. She fiercely walked at Rosa and her brothers. She took her hand, grabbed Rosa’s face/chin and told her that if she ever talked to her boy like that or was seen here again that she would have the police here immediately and sending her to prison! Now how would you feel if just because you were sticking up for yourself and you were threatened that way? I have a 99.9% guarantee that you would not like it one bit! That’s what blacks went through every day of their life.
I have 1 more example of how this book shows that blacks were mistreated. We whites were so ignorant because of how we treated blacks. Just because they have a different skin color that meant that they were different people. One example of that is how black people had to have separate water fountains, restaurants, bathrooms, and even grocery stores! WHO DOES THAT! Just say that you are a black man or women, and you are thirsty on a very hot day and all that is near you is a water fountain for whites. You go up to that fountain and take a sip and a cop or even just a neighborhood white man sees you, ITS OVER! You would without a doubt get wacked by that person and go to the police station for it. The funny thing is, is that the white person is using force on the black person and they don’t get charged for anything. That is what this book shows very well and you can even feel as if you are a black person in that time period.
In conclusion I really recommend Rosa Parks: My Story if you want to learn about black history and feel as if you were on of them.
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Feb 25, 2013 Maxzine Rossler rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: chapter, informational

Rosa Parks My Story was about Rosa Parks and her upbringing since she was a child. She did not have the steady lifestyle that most children had growing up. She grew up with her mother, and moved around a lot. Her mother raised her telling her that she was just as good as anybody else. This was including towards white people as well. This advice from her mother helped her all through her life. At school she refused to let any of the white kids pick on her. Rosa ended up going to a couple differen...more Rosa Parks My Story was about Rosa Parks and her upbringing since she was a child. She did not have the steady lifestyle that most children had growing up. She grew up with her mother, and moved around a lot. Her mother raised her telling her that she was just as good as anybody else. This was including towards white people as well. This advice from her mother helped her all through her life. At school she refused to let any of the white kids pick on her. Rosa ended up going to a couple different schools down in Alabama, but eventually dropped out and finished later when she was in her twenties. Her dropping out did not define her as a person, it would only help her become more determined and driven.
This book continues to discuss Rosa Parks life growing up as a black woman in Alabama faces the struggles of society. Her biggest hurdle in life came when she refused to move to the back of the bus. This incident was used as a “test case” against segregation, and that is where this incident was named the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This boycott led to integration on buses that began on December 21, 1956. This book goes on to talk about all of the other accomplishments she was a part of, and how she was dedicated to making rights equal among everyone. These accomplishments lead back to her mother telling her that she was just as good as anyone else.

When Rosa’s mother was talking to her and telling her that no one else is better than you really stuck out in my mind. This is the mentality that many children need without thinking that they are better than everyone else. This attitude really helped Rosa Parks develop into the person she came out to be. If more children had the mentality that they could do whatever they wanted if they put their minds to it, then they would not be timid to try new things. This part stuck out to me in particular because it reminded me of my parents always telling me that I chose my own destiny, and I can do whatever I want to do if I want it bad enough.

This would be a great book for a classroom to read while discussing segregation, and the Civil Rights Act. I would provide each student with a book and assign chapters to read each night and have a class discussion the next day. Throughout the book I would have students write a research paper on the Montgomery Bus Boycott, or other topics that are discussed in the book. This book provides information from Rosa Park’s life, and also the road to integration. This book would be a good use for history and reading in the classroom.

This book was not rated on Lexile, but would be a good read aloud for 3rd grade and up since at this age they are understanding concept and history. According to Scholastic this book is a level U there for students that are in 5th to 6th grade should be reading this book independently.
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Jul 30, 2012 Megan Korngold added it

This book is an autobiography by Rose Parks written on (about) a fifth grade reading level. Many students will have heard about Rosa Parks and remember her story: she was the African American woman who would not give up her seat on the bus. Although this account of Parks is factual and essential to understand society and Parks during this time, there is also a lot more that Parks faced on a daily, weekly, yearly basis.

The details and experiences Parks includes in this book allows students to ha...more

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Nov 27, 2010 Clarissa rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: english-420

Rosa Parks: My Story Non-Fiction/Historical/Race/Civil-Rights

Rosa Parks tells her own story about her upbringing, the discrimination she faced all her life, and that fateful day: December 1, 1955 - the day she refused to give up her seat on the bus. From a very early age, Rosa was acutely aware of the dangers of being a Black woman in the south. Her grandfather stayed awake at night with a shotgun, for fear the Ku Klux Klan would storm into their home. Rosa eventually married a man who was a gre...more

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Dec 21, 2012 Tyler rated it 5 of 5 stars

Rosa Parks my story describes how Rosa took one big step on a Montgomery bus. She refused to give up her seat to a white man. The consequense changed her life and the life of others forever.This is a well written, deteiled and interesting book. It is filled with information but still alive with interest. I think everything was very fluent but it might not appeal to all young readers. It would most likely be useful for teenagers with reports. teenagers would probably grasp the information better...more

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Jan 14, 2009 Chelsi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Rosa Parks: My Story by Rosa Parks.Main people are Rosa Parks, Marten Luther King JR the event was in Alabama 1950's. In this book the conflict was that immergration and it happened on the bus and a white man came on and she didn't give up her seat to the man and the driver call the police and the police sent her to jail for not giving up her seat. In this is a self Biogrphy This woman is my hero she was so brave not to give up her seat to a white person and she know that she would get in troubl...more

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Dec 13, 2008 Lydia rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's pretty good.I had to read it for school.At first, I thought it was going to be super boring but it was accually pretty good.

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Mar 10, 2008 Cherise Mattson rated it 4 of 5 stars

i learned that in this book rosa parks did not only stick up for her rights and beliefs, but for her people to.

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Oct 30, 2007 Molly Gray rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this in like 5th grade and absolutely loved it. Opened me eyes to racism and the ability to rise against.

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Jan 30, 2012 Isabelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

December 14th 2011 Response:
So far in this book even though I havn't read a lot of it i've taken a lot of notes, and since this book is partly by Rosa Parks, it has a lot of information, and I can understand how Rosa Parks, herelf felt as a child with all of the segregation laws and rules. Also, Rosa Parks is a very brave women, and always has been, because she spoke up for herself on the bus that very famous day in early December 1955.

January 4th 2012 Response:
I really like this book, and I'm l...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Shamiya James is currently reading it

I am currently reading Rosa Parks:My story and i realkly think it's a great book. It really gives you a feel of what it was like for Rosa Parks and for other blacks during that time. It shows ahe was brave and had courage. It allows you to dig deeper into the past and see what really went on. I think people should read this book because it allows you to open your minds up to different things. It's started off as an amazing book, and i can't wait to read the rest of the book. I think it will be a...more

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Nov 26, 2012 Mary Harris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Citation: Rosa Parks: My Story, by Rosa Parks and Jim Haskins. (Puffin, 1999).188p. Biography.

Genre: Junior Book - Biography

Summary: The story delves into the story of the Rosa Park’s bus boycott and chronicles her life. She gives a succinct account of her life growing up, leading up to the boycott, and after the boycott.
A. The greatest aspect of this story is that it is told through the eyes of Rosa Parks herself. She provides wonderful details and rich descriptions throughout her biography.
B...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Mary Arkless rated it 5 of 5 stars

The book reads as if Rosa Parks is sitting there, talking to you. I found it very straight forward and enjoyable, a bit like listening to your grandparent tell you about his or her life.

I knew that society in general and the South in the extreme had been very ugly towards people of color. This book tells it like it was, just how horrible it had been. Some of the things Mrs. Parks had witnessed and fought against were shocking.

I am very glad this is, for the most part, history, that things have i...more

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Feb 24, 2009 Mz.Adorable84 rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

Recommended to Mz.Adorable84 by: myself

This book is like totally amazing and I would not mind reading it over and over again.The main CHARACTER of this book is Rosa Parks McCauley.After all she wrote the book. The setting is mostly in Alabama around the late 1950's, but the most important thing that changed the way we live today is the Bus Boycott that happened in Montgomery, Alabama 1955. What had happened was that she was forced to move and give her seat to white man and she refused to do that because she was tired of giving up fo...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Rebecca added it

Shelves: historical

Interesting look at the emerging Civil Rights movement from one of its primary actors. I had to do a little checking on Wikipedia since some of the names and places were unfamiliar to me. But I enjoyed hearing Rosa Parks' version of the story. Her narrative style is simple, given her limited educational opportunities. She comes across as a woman humbled and grateful to have played a part in history but at the same time, content to give credit to others and stay out of the spotlight except when i...more

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Mar 15, 2010 Ch_nataliepelaia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: info-bios

It was December 1st, 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus for a white man. Rosa had enough and decided at that moment she would not recognize a law in which she thought was wrong. Rosa was arrested and put into jail for her actions.
Rosa Parks kept up the fight for civil rights all her life. She helped Martin Luther King Jr. and his followers whenever they needed her.
This book will help young readers to see that there are times when one has to stand up for what one be...more

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Feb 15, 2011 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I saw this book at the local library as part of the February African-American Month and decided I'd like to read it.

It was a very easy read and I finished it in one day. Hearing about the Civil Rights Movement and how Mrs. Parks was involved was interesting and in some cases an eye opener. Like most people I had heard of what she did on the bus by not giving up her seat to a white woman but never really knew the whole story or even the truth about what happened.

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Jul 29, 2010 Molly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Junior High level reading (it took me just a few hours) packed w/ history. I learned so many things about her that I did not know, and wish I could have met her. She was a quiet hero. That picture, the one on the front of the book, was staged for use by the media, but her story is amazing. Read it and you will admire her strength and determination starting from her early childhood. I think this should be required reading for everyone.

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Mar 13, 2013 Sandelyn Sadler rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this book for my biography paper in class. Rosa Parks was a inspirational woman and person. When the Civil Rights Movement went to outrage ever since she did not get out in the front seat. People thought she was crazy for doing that, but she really wasn't. Rosa was just standing up for herself for once in her lifetime. She was tired of being treated like an animal everyday, just by the way she looks. Just because she looks different from everybody else, doesn't mean she should be treated...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Tee Minn rated it 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this humble, honest autobiography that reads more like a journal post. She uses her everyday recollection, and feelings to describe a bitter and triumphant time in history. Not being politically savvy, I had no idea of the real events leading up to her day of civil disobedience.

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Oct 28, 2012 Eleonora rated it 4 of 5 stars

I needed to understand what happened on that bus on that day. she made the difference without knowing that when she was going through it. they could not seat on the front sits in the bus..it's such a stupid thing..like the fountain for colored people, school for colored kids and so on..

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Apr 07, 2012 Bec added it

Reading this for an assignment - interesting so far.

Finished this book today - i was only meant to "skim" my research books but this was quiet interesting - It was very easy book to read. Rosa Parks had an very interesting life and did so much more than refuse to give up her seat on the bus.

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Apr 26, 2012 Hayley Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

I now admire Rosa Parks even more, and have a much deeper respect for her. She was courageous and a very strong (also proud) inspirational women. You must read to understand her bravery. Please the movie si no where close to demonstrate what she had gone through.

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Feb 14, 2013 Graciela M.❤ rated it 5 of 5 stars

Rosa Parks Story is a story about how Rosa Park Stood up to the discrimination she would face her whole life. December 1, 1955 was the day Rosa Park’s life would change forever. The day Rosa Park decided to stand her ground and not give up her seat. In fact people thought she was crazy for doing that, but because she did was the reason why the Civil Rights Movement started. She stood up for what she believed was right.

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Oct 14, 2010 Ellie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1st-quarter

This is a well writen autobiography about Rosa Parks's life. It tells about her childhood, adult life, and the bus event/boycot. Which made her famous and well known. I think her story was interesting to read. I recomend this book to any one who would like to learn more about Rosa Parks and some of what went on before civil rights were used.

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Jan 04, 2010 DIQUE... rated it 5 of 5 stars

i loved this book because it shows hows rosa parks fought for alot of stuff because she was black and she fought for her rights well and it show pics of events in her life and what she was going through

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Mar 16, 2013 Jacqueline Kendall rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: childrens-literature

This book is about Rosa Parks and her story of not giving up her seat to a white man theb her boycott that she started. This is a great book for black history month for students in middle school to read.

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Jan 22, 2010 Isaiah Johnson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Rosa Parks:my story is a wonderful book.The way it's transprired from a little african-american girl growing up in the racial south to defining black history and overcoming racial whites(no offense).But my point is rosa mcCauley-parks is the one of my favorite roll models.Thank you rosa parks.1913-2005.

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Jan 12, 2013 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-reads

Great overview and perspective on the Civil Rights movement and the role of black women in particular. I'll be sharing passages from this with my 10th graders in their unit on Black History Month.

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Oct 17, 2012 Sarah added it · review of another edition

Shelves: october

I like this book because, it is very discriptive about Rosa Parks`s life. It is well written and talks about the bad things that happened as well as the good things.

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About Rosa Parks

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African American civil rights activist whom the U.S. Congress later called the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement."

On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks, age 42, refused to obey bus driver James Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. Her action was not the first of its kind: Irene Morgan, in 1946, and S...more Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African American civil rights activist whom the U.S. Congress later called the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement."

On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks, age 42, refused to obey bus driver James Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. Her action was not the first of its kind: Irene Morgan, in 1946, and Sarah Louise Keys, in 1955, had won rulings before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Interstate Commerce Commission respectively in the area of interstate bus travel. Nine months before Parks refused to give up her seat, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to move from her seat on the same bus system. But unlike these previous individual actions of civil disobedience, Parks's action sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Parks's act of defiance became an important symbol of the modern Civil Rights Movement and Parks became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation. She organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders, including boycott leader Martin Luther King, Jr., helping to launch him to national prominence in the civil rights movement.

At the time of her action, Parks was secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and had recently attended the Highlander Folk School, a Tennessee center for workers' rights and racial equality. Nonetheless, she took her action as a private citizen "tired of giving in". Although widely honored in later years for her action, she also suffered for it, losing her job as a seamstress in a local department store. Eventually, she moved to Detroit, Michigan, where she found similar work. From 1965 to 1988 she served as secretary and receptionist to African-American U.S. Representative John Conyers. After retirement from this position, she wrote an autobiography and lived a largely private life in Detroit. In her final years she suffered from dementia and became embroiled in a lawsuit filed on her behalf against American hip-hop duo OutKast.

Parks eventually received many honors ranging from the 1979 Spingarn Medal to the Congressional Gold Medal, a posthumous statue in the United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall. Her death in 2005 was a major story in the United States' leading newspapers. She was granted the posthumous honor of lying in honor at the Capitol Rotunda.
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