“Rosa Parks drew solace & sustenance from the long history of Black resistance before her time, placing her action & the Montgomery bus boycott in the continuum of Black protest. Her speech notes during the boycott read: ‘Reading histories of others–Crispus Attucks through all wars–Richard Allen–Dr. Adam Clayton Powell Sr. & Jr. Women Phyllis Wheatley–Sojourner Truth–Harriet Tubman, Mary McLeod Bethune. For Parks, the ability to keep going, to know that the struggle for justice was possible amidst all the setbacks they encountered, was partly possible through reading & referencing the long Black struggle before her.”

− Jeanne Theoharis −