writing more in reducing the kind of interest i have two just a few. that is the big thing. and no more to request and yes more. >> host: a piece by jim webb which criticizes you for not recognizing the courage and sacrifices of the boomers while speaking often about the greatest generation. put. >> guest: gemini. i went to vietnam with him and we have had this discussion before. he has a legitimate about the former generation are brought about how he did answer the call. how he represents a part of our society. i think he's quite correct in that. he's worried about the roots he comes from. he doesn't think that gets

enough attention. i'm a bigot mirer of jim webb. i can always predict where it's going to end up which is part of the p. of -- appeal. if you look at his writing ability we need more citizens like that. >> host: i think we have covered the news media and health care. "a lucky life interrupted" a memoir of hope tom brokaw's latest book and as always we appreciate you taking calls. >> guest: thank you, very happy to be here. >> host: we are joined by james harris is a professor program called -- and the author of the brilliant life of mrs. rosa parks. jane theo harris prior to december 1, 1955 was rosa parks rebellious? >> guest: absolutely and her

rebellious. starts as a young person as a kid. for instance she grows up in her home with her grandparents and her mother. her grandfather after world war ii there is on the uptake of clan violence. her grandfather would sit out at night with a shotgun and a 6-year-old rosa parks would sit with him. another time a white person pushes her and she pushes back. she believes she shouldn't have to be pushed. her political life stars when she describes the first act of the she ever met and that's raymond parks. she was organizing around -- so that's 1932 and for the next 20 years she will be active. she will join the naacp in 1943 for the next 10 years will help to lead the montgomery naacp into becoming a more activist chapter doing voter registration working on legal cases legal

lynching cases but also trying to get justice for black women have been victims of sexual violence. so december 1, 1955 rosa parks is a seasoned rebel if you will. >> host: was december 1, 1955, the bus -- was that planned? >> guest: know was not planned but it is a process in terms of her life a culmination of many acts of rebellion. montgomery's black community is thinking about filing a suit a year after brown versus board of education is wearing a different legal climate. they been talking about the need to challenge busek nation. this is also not the first, she's not the first person arrested on the bus. in the decade after world war ii you see a kind of trickle of people refusing to give up their seat getting arrested.

in 1940 for a woman the name of feel a white gets arrested. police raid her daughter. there's a series of cases begin 1954 a new opportunity and as you may know in march of 1955 a. 15-year-old by the name of claudette colvin refuses to get get -- give place on the bus. the community galvanizes to two things happens. one the judge throws out the segregation charge in claudette colvin's case and second the community doesn't fully stand behind colvin and easier is too young to feisty so when i say it's not planned rosa parks is not a freedom rider. she doesn't get on the bus to make a stand but it's also not spontaneous. it doesn't come out of nowhere. rosa parks had made stands on the bus before december 1, 1955. one of the things that called her was minibus drivers would

make black people pay the front and get off the bus and report in the back. she refused to do that and she had been thrown off the bus ride this bus driver who will have her arrested and other bus drivers who considered her uppity for not being willing to do that. so this is not her first act but on december 1, 1955 she is coming home from work at 6:00 at night. she goes to the drugstore and buy sticky things, boards the bus sits in the middle section. the middle section is a bit of a no-man's land and that this is not the white section and over and over she makes clear that she's not sitting in the white section. there a lot of myths that she sits in the white section that's not true. she sits in the middle section. black people could sit there but did at the whim of the driver they could be asked to give up

their seats. this verse up after she gets on the bus fills up and one white man is left standing. the bus driver notices this and the bus drivers name is james blake. he tells the people in rosa parks road because for this one white man to sit down all four people in a row will have to get up. he asked them to get up. he asked again more forcefully and the other three people reluctantly according to rosa parks get up and as she puts it she pushed as far she could be pushed to it she got up and she would be -- and she did not consent. she thinks about emmett till at this moment. a young 14-year-old who was lynched in mississippi. she thinks about her grandfather and she refuses. she actually left the man sitting next to her get by her and she slides over to the window and refuses.

the bus driver says i'm going to have you arrested and she says you may see that. so the bus driver calls the police and i think we can think about what's happening in that moment. she sitting there and those of us who have been on the bus when somebody makes a scene, people are grumbling and getting off the bus. the police officers get on the bus and many of us think about rosa parks being quiet. rosa parks is certainly a shy reserve person but rosa parks is not quieting key moments. when the police officers get on the bus and ask her why she didn't move she says back, why do you push us around? so i do think rosa parks in many moments challenges with her body and her voice the inequality in the country and she is arrested. >> host: as children we all

learned that rosa parks sat on the bus and the white section, quite. this is what you write in your book rebellious life. the turn-of-the-century construction history tells us good black people as deferential and happy so does the incessant celebration of parks as quiet and not angry. just go right, i think we learn about her, she has on the one hand she's incredibly celebrated and honored. on the other hand we hear about one day when rosa parks had a lifetime of activism but they will have to leave montgomery and she will spend the second half of her life as an activist in detroit fighting the racism of the jim crow north. she will continue to do that. rosa parks will call. ♪ maxtor personal hero. she'll be active against the war in vietnam. she will be active against south

african apartheid. you are showing a picture when my favorites in the book about all the rosa parks protesting outside of the south african embassy. she will continue to the end of her life saying the struggle is not over. there is much injustice in the country and she will resolve to keep fighting. and yet i think the way with rosa parks is todd is much more work to be done. .. archives, in part because part of rosa parks's papers were caught in a dispute over her estate, had gotten the papers to sell with all of her in effect, they languished in new york for a decade until this summer howard

buffett made an incredible donation and recently gave them to the library of congress and in february theyopened. they are re