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Illustrator Brian Collier won a Caldecott Honor for this lovely book about Rosa Parks, and how she sparked a bus boycott that changed the world. The book was also awarded the Corretta Scott King award.

From the date of her arrest for sitting on a bus when a white man wanted her seat to the Supreme Court decision that segregation on buses was just as illegal and wrong as segregation in schools, nearly a year passed, and in Montgomery Alabama that entire year found black people and others who supported their cause walking.

And let's pause for a minute to acknowledge that Mrs. Parks arrest would not have been the catalyst for change if Dr. Jo Ann Robinson, a professor at Alabama State, the "colored" college, hadn't acted when she heard the news of the arrest on the bus. She was the Newly elected president of the Women's PoliticalCouncil though, and she acted right away. She called a meeting of the council for that night at 10 pm in her on campus office. There, the 25 members gathered, and with the unauthorized use of campus supples (stencil maker, printer and paper) they made fliers and signs announcing the bus boycott - "No Riders Today" "Stay Off Busses - Support Mrs. Parks" - and in the morning they posted them and passed them out, convincing other people to become civil rights through their participation in what became known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The movement grew - The NAACP and all the black churches joined the cause, and Dr. Martin Luther King was selected to speak for the growing movement. "We will stay off the busses. We will walk until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream." They walked for over a year, until on Nov 13, 1956 the Supreme Court made it's historic ruling.


Re-read, August 2020
Nikki Giovanni hides this gem on the acknowledgements page:
Rosa Parks is a cooling breeze on a sweltering day; a son dried quilt in the fall; the enchantment of snowflakes extending the horizon; the promise of renewal at spring. It is an honor and a responsibility to explore the bravery of her acceptance of history’s challenge.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: We will stay off the buses. We will walk until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.