>> you are watching 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books on c-span's w books tv for sears readers. >> we are joined by a professor at brooklyn college and theofso author of the rebellious life of mrs. rosa parks. prior to december 1, 1955 wass rosa parks rebellious? >> absolutely, her rebellious spirit starts as a young person, as a kid, for instance she grows up in a home with herla grandparents and mother. her grandfather asked her what she thinks of the violence, her grandfather will sit out at night with her shotgun and asher

young rosa parts will sick withh him. at another point a bully pushes him and she pushes back.icalife her political life starts when she meets who she describes as the first activists she ever met and that is raymond parks.chap they got married in 1932 and she joined him organizing. that is 1932 and for the next 20 years she will be active. she joined the naacp in 1943. for the next ten years will help to lead the montgomery next ten years will help to lead the montgomery naacp into becoming an activist chapter. doing voter registration, working on legal cases, legal lynching cases and trying to get justice for black women who have been victims of sexual violencei by december 1, 1965 she is is a seasoned rebel if you will. >> was that planned.

>> know it was not planned.y but it was a process in terms of her life and in culmination of many acts ofta rebellion. certainly montgomery's black community is thinking about filing a suit. this is a year versus brown versus education, were in a different legal climate. they have been talking about the need to challenge bus segregation. this is also not the first person arrested on thee d bus.e in the decade after world war ii you see a trickle of peoplea wo refusing to give up their seats, getting arrested. in 1944 a woman by the name of viola white refuses to give upic her seat. police rape her daughter.s, there's a series of cases, 1954 with new opportunity. in march of 1955 a woman refuses

to give up her seat on the bus. at first it seems this will be the case in two things happenrea the judge happens out theity charges and then second the community doesn't fully standty behind cold and they sears too young or too feisty. so when i say it's not planned, she is not a freedom writer, she doesn't get on the bus to make a stand, also not spontaneous it doesn't just come out of1955 nowhere. she had also made stands on the bus before december 1, 1955. one of the things was many bus drivers would make black people pay stay in the front get off lewibus and report in the back. ce had refused to do that and she had been thrown off the bus and other bus drivers who consider uppity for not being willing to do that. this is not her first act but ot

december 1, 1955, 55, she's coming home from work atg s 6:00 p.m. at night she goes to the drugstore buys a few things, boards the bus and sits in thet middle section. the middle section is a bit of a no man's land in that black people this is not the white section.se she makes it clear she is not sitting in the white section. there are myths that say she's sitting there that's nott true.t for the middle section black be people would sit there but thehr driver could ask her to give up her seat.us the third stop after she gets on the bus., and, and one white man is left standing. the bus driver notices this and he tells people in rosa parks

row, for this one white man to sit down all four people in thiy role would have to give up. he asked them to give up. no one nr one moves. yes again more forcefully on thp other three reluctantly according to rosa parks, get ups and she, pushed as far she could be pushed, and she did not consent.sspi she thinks about others in this moment the young 14-year-old, she thinks about her grandfathey and she refuses. she actually slides, she lets t the main get by her and she the window.to the bus driver says well i'm y e bug to have you arrested and she says well you may do that.hs so the bus driver calls then police he doesn't have a cell te phone, think you can think about what is happening in that moment.e are she is sitting there and those of us who are on the bus when

someone makes the scene knowof what people do people are bus and grumbling, they get off the busn the officers get on the bus and many of us think of rosa parks is being quiet.bu r rosa parks is certainly a shy reserve person but she is notere quiet in the moment. when the police officers get on the bus and they asked her why she didn't move, she says back, why do you push us around? i do think rosa parks in many moments challenges both in herty body and her voice the system o. inequality and then she is arrested.ayou >> so we want to learn that rosa parks sat on the bus and the white section, this is when you write in your book thehe rebellious life of mrs. rosa g parks just as theo, turn-of-the-century so to does the celebration.sh

>> i think we learn about her,oe she has on one h othand, celebrd and honored, an honor, on the other hand we hear p about one y when rosa parks had a left time of activism. she will spend the second half of her life as an activist inon detroit fighting the racism.th she will continue to do that. in she will call malcolm x her personal hero. she will be active against the war in vietnam. she will will b active against south africanldes apartheid.he end my favorite in the book is an older rosa park protesting outside the embassy. she will continue to the end of her life say the struggle is not over, there is much injustice in this country. she will be resolved to keeps it

fighting. the weight she is taught is that there is this problem to be solved in the past when the actual rosa parks said there is much work to be done.o how did. >> how did you do the researchot on your book. >> i had to do a lot of digging. i went through archives oral history interviews, in part because part of her papers were caught up in a dispute over her estate they had gotten papers tr sell, they anguished in new york for about a decade. howard buffett made an incredible donation and bought them and gave them to the library of congress. in february they opened. they are remarkable. the library of congress is open to anyone who wants to visit. people should go see them, you

can read letters between rosa parks and her husband and mother. you can see her political writing, hear her voice and talking about why she did what she did. i would very much recommend them. >> you're spending more time at the library of congress. >> absolutely. >> the rebellious life of mrs. rosa parks. >> is their nonfiction author book you'd like to see featured on book tv? send us an email an email to book tv@c-span.org. tweet us at book tv tweet is that book tv or post on our wall, facebook.com/book tv. >> is radically different, the biggest is it hasn't have reformation. if you don't have a reformation you're still living in the stone age. there are people who want to reform islam and that law doesn't allow you. whatever the common consensus is so if all of the scholars say no

, this is who we are, they can kill you for trying to reform. it sounds very barbaric but it sounds like christianity may be 1000 years ago. we have had a reformation. there are great muslims who want the reformation but it is not happening. by us denying that there is a struggle within islam, we are hurting the reformers. we are trapping them in a stone age. >> you can watch this and other programs online apple tv.org. >> next on book tv, barton swain talks about his experience as a speechwriter for former south carolina mark sanford.