Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: The Life of Rosa Parks (Lives)

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Florida’s House Bill 7 restricts what can be taught to students about certain topics, including race. It went into effect as law last July and requires schools to submit instructional material to the state’s Department of Education for textbook review. Finally, a book about the real Rosa Parks — the Rosa Parks who was a lifelong activist, tireless organizer, and who did so much more than refuse to give up her seat on that bus in Montgomery, Alabama. In story after story, Jeanne Theoharis and Brandy Colbert breathe life into the rebellious Mrs. Rosa Parks, a fighter for justice who will intrigue and inspire young people. And for all of us who want to teach honestly about Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement, this is an essential resource. — Bill Bigelow, curriculum editor, Rethinking Schools; co-director, Zinn Education Project In the face of such racism, Rosa decided to make a stand for what was right. Together with her husband Raymond, she joined the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), working towards putting an end to discrimination and segregation. A prominent conservative education group, whose members volunteered to review textbooks, objected to a slew of them, accusing publishers of “promoting their bias.” At least two publishers declined to participate altogether. In Florida, educational materials must be approved at the state level, with different subjects undergoing a review each year. But the text of this law, critics have noted, is vague, and potentially makes it a violation of law to teach about historical events involving racial injustice. The New York Times reporting focused on examples of publishers changing material in an effort to satisfy this law.

Neighboring St. Johns County has instructed teachers to pull more than 90 books from school shelves, during a review in response to Florida’s new laws. The books — many of which discuss racism or feature LGBTQ+ characters — are being reviewed because of parent objections and will be returned to shelves, circulated with restrictions or removed after review. Jeanne Theoharis has written an eye-opening biography of Rosa Parks. It was ideal for the classroom: smart, brisk, and engaging. Best of all, Theoharis explodes all of the clichés surrounding a historical figure whom most students thought they knew. I will assign this book again and again.” Studies Weekly says the “unapproved changes were never finalized nor delivered to schools for classroom use.” This friendly, fun biography series inspired the PBS Kids TV show Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum. One great role model at a time, these books encourage kids to dream big. Included in each book are: You have an all-white school board and nearly every banned book is written by or about a person of color,” he said. “Race is a hard subject, but nothing good comes out of not talking about hard subjects. If we’re saying we can’t discuss race, we’re doing our kids a disservice.”The original text is fully adapted by Theoharis and the award-winning young adult author Brandy Colbert, for middle-grade and young adult readers to include archival images and personal papers of Rosa Parks, and to provide the necessary historical context to bring the multi-faceted, decades-long Civil Rights Movement to life. [Publisher’s description.] The eminent historian Douglas Brinkley follows this thoughtful and devout woman from her childhood in Jim Crow Alabama through her early involvement in the NAACP to her epochal moment of courage and her afterlife as a beloved (and resented) icon of the civil rights movement. Well researched and written with sympathy and keen insight, the result is a moving, revelatory portrait of an American heroine and her tumultuous times. Reflections by Rosa Parks

Theoharis brings all of her talents as a political scientist and historian of the civil rights movement to bear on this illuminating biography of the great Rosa Parks.”

With the 2022 passage of the "Stop W.O.K.E. Act," championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida state law prohibited instruction that would, as The New York Times described, "compel students to feel responsibility, guilt or anguish for what other members of their race did in the past, among other limits." Specifically, the law reads: Presenting a corrective to the popular notion of Rosa Parks as the quiet seamstress who performed a single act that sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and birthed the modern Civil Rights Movement, Jeanne Theoharis provides a revealing window into Parks’ politics and decades of activism. She shows readers how the movement radically sought — for more than a half a century — to expose and eradicate the racial-caste system in jobs, schools, public services, and criminal justice and how Rosa Parks was a key player throughout. There are numerous books on Rosa Parks, and it comes with good reason, she was an American activist in the civil rights movement that played an especially pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The parsing of the word “book ban” is not new to Florida or Duval County Schools. During a news conference this month, Gov. Ron DeSantis said recent coverage of the district’s attempts to comply with the new Florida law amount to a “book ban hoax,” and accused Duval County of “intentionally trying to create friction to act like something was wrong in the state of Florida.” Because the Florida Department of Education provided no guidance on interpreting Florida House Bill 7, Studies Weekly, like every publisher, has had to decipher how to comply with their legislation. That being said, during the Florida social studies adoption, individuals in our curriculum team severely overreacted in their interpretation of HB 7 and made unapproved revisions.