''On the Bus with Rosa Parks'' is a book of poems by
Rita Dove.
Rosa Parks was an American
activist
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
in the
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
best known for her pivotal role in the
Montgomery bus boycott. The
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
has called her "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".
[. Retrieved November 13, 2011. The quoted passages can be seen by clicking through to the text or PDF.]
The book contains a poem about
Claudette Colvin
Claudette Colvin (born Claudette Austin; September 5, 1939) is an American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested at the age of 15 in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up ...
, a high school student who was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Parks for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus.
Contents
*''July, 1925
*Night
*Birth
*Lake Erie skyline, 1930
*Depression years
*Homework
*Graduation, grammar school
*Painting the town
*Easter Sunday, 1940
*Nightwatch. The son
*Singsong
*I cut my finger once on purpose
*Parlor
*The first book
*Maple Valley Branch Library, 1967
*Freedom: bird's-eye view
*Testimonial
*Dawn revisited
*My mother enters the work force
*Black on a Saturday night
*The musician talks about "process"
*Sunday
*The camel comes to us from the barbarians
*The Venus of Willendorf
*Incarnation in Phoenix
*Best Western Motor Lodge, AAA approved
*Revenant
*On Veronica
*There came a soul
*The peach orchard
*Against repose Against self-pity
*Götterdämmerung
*Ghost walk
*Lady Freedom among us
*For Sophie, who'll be in first grade in the year 2000
*Sit back, relax
*"The situation is intolerable"
*Freedom ride
*Climbing in
*Claudette Colvin goes to work
*The enactment
*Rosa
*QE2. Transatlantic crossing. Third Day.
*In the lobby of the Warner Theatre, Washington, D.C.
*The pond, porch-view: six P.M., early spring.''
References
External links
Rita Dove, ''On the Bus with Rosa Parks'', interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:On the Bus with Rosa Parks
American poetry collections
1999 poetry books
W. W. Norton & Company books