Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

ROSA PARKS

More Top Picks Best Desk Lamps For Students

By Douglas Brinkley

Penguin Lives, 246 pages, $19.95

Rosa Parks’ civil rights activism began long before she refused to give up a seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Ala. As historian Douglas Brinkley deftly shows, Parks was an active member of the local NAACP chapter for years before her 1955 act that prompted a historic bus boycott. In this illuminating volume, the first biography of the legendary figure, Brinkley blends interviews with Parks and those of former classmates, co-workers and protesters. The result is a dramatic and fascinating read.