On Friday, April 26, at 7:00 p.m., a diverse group of more than 25 community organizations will sponsor a celebration of the lifelong activism of Rosa Parks, with special guest Jeanne Theoharis, author of The Rebellious Life of Rosa Parks, at Milwaukee’s Central United Methodist Church, 639 N. 25th Street (at Wisconsin Avenue). The event is free and open to the public, with free off-street parking south of the church. Doors will open at 6:15 p.m., when a preview documentary on Rosa Parks will be shown.
According to MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry, “At last, Jeanne Theoharis answers the question, ‘who was Rosa Parks?’ The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks will undoubtedly be hailed as one of the most important scholarly contributions to Civil Rights history ever written.” Julian Bond, Chairman Emeritus of the NAACP, similarly praised Theoharis’s new biography: “In the first sweeping history of Parks’ life, she shows us a long-time activist, committed to fight white supremacy from her earliest days, and continuing that fight when her notoriety forced her to relocate to Detroit.… Rosa Parks not only sat down on the bus, she stood on the right side of justice for her entire life.”
This event will include live music and light refreshments, visual displays of artwork related to Rosa Parks from AYZHA Fine Arts Gallery, and a discussion of Rosa Parks’s six decades of activism with Dr. Theoharis. There will be a book sale and signing after the program, in cooperation with Reader’s Choice Bookshop, 1950 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Dr., (414) 265-2003.
