On the Bus with Rosa Parks is a book of poems by Rita Dove. Rosa Parks was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has called her "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".
The book contains a poem about Claudette Colvin, a high school student who was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Parks for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus.
Contents
July, 1925
Night
Birth
Lake Erie skyline, 1930
Depression years
Homework
Graduation, grammar school
Painting the town
Easter Sunday, 1940
Nightwatch. The son
Singsong
I cut my finger once on purpose
Parlor
The first book
Maple Valley Branch Library, 1967
Freedom: bird's-eye view
Testimonial
Dawn revisited
My mother enters the work force
Black on a Saturday night
The musician talks about "process" Sunday The camel comes to us from the barbarians The Venus of Willendorf Incarnation in Phoenix Best Western Motor Lodge, AAA approved Revenant On Veronica There came a soul The peach orchard Against repose Against self-pity Götterdämmerung Ghost walk Lady Freedom among us For Sophie, who'll be in first grade in the year 2000 Sit back, relax "The situation is intolerable" Freedom ride Climbing in Claudette Colvin goes to work The enactment Rosa QE2. Transatlantic crossing. Third Day. In the lobby of the Warner Theatre, Washington, D.C. The pond, porch-view: six P.M., early spring.