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Giovanni, N. (2005) Rosa. Illus.
Bryan Collier. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
Caldecott
Honor
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In Nikki Giovanni’s Rosa, a retelling of
the historical events surrounding Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her
seat on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama,
readers
are presented not only an insight into Mrs. Parks as a person, but
also a chronicle in words and images of the Civil Rights events of
that time. When Rosa Parks started her day on December 1, 1955, she
was someone’s daughter, Raymond Park’s wife, and the best seamstress
in Montgomery, not a radical trouble-maker looking for a cause to
ignite. She was tired of separate and definitely tired of “not
equal,” but her refusal to vacate a seat on the bus for a white
person was also because she was physically tired. Suddenly overcome
with all that “tiredness,” she cast her lot as she denied the bus
driver’s shouts for her to move and was eventually arrested for her
refusal. Giovanni eloquently surmises Rosa’s actions as she writes,
“She had not sought this moment, but she was ready for it.”
This version of the events that lead to the
largest and longest boycott of public buses in US history emphasizes
the role of the Women’s Political Council in Montgomery, the NAACP,
and Martin Luther King, Jr. who gave voice to this cause. To make
the clear the historic movement to this event, Bryan Collier
provided a double-page fold out with powerful images of African
American people of all ages walking and then celebrating the Supreme
Court decision that established segregation on buses as illegal.
Collier explained, in his “Illustrator’s Note,” that he painted Mrs.
Parks to look “as if light is emanating from her. To me, she is
like a radiant chandelier, an elegant light that illuminates all our
many pathways.” Nikki Giovanni, in her “Author’s Note,” explained
that “Rosa Parks is a cooling breeze on a sweltering day; a
sun-dried quilt in fall . . . the promise of renewal at spring. It
is an honor and a responsibility to explore the bravery of her
acceptance of history’s challenge.” Older readers can be challenged
to consider other such brave characters of history and to
investigate actual texts such as newspaper accounts, websites,
photographs, films, and history books that they can use to put
together the same kind of simple but powerful retelling of such a
life.
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Active Reading/Learning Strategies:
Sequence Organizer for Rosa
PowerPoint
guide for completing Sequence Organizer
Writing in Response to Reading:
Rosa – Written Response
Activity
1.
Why did Rosa refuse to give up her seat on the bus? In the
story, who did not agree with her? Why do you think some of the
people did not agree with her at the time?
2.
What did the women in the story do to let people know that
they should stay off the busses?
3.
The women in the story called for a “boycott.” What do you
think the word “boycott” means? Have you ever boycotted anything or
heard of others boycotting anything recently?
4.
When the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on the busses
was wrong, what did the Court mean? Do you know what the word
segregation means?
5.
In the story, Martin Luther King, Jr. is quoted as saying,
“We will walk until justice runs down like water and righteousness
like a mighty stream.” What do you think he is saying? How do the
words make you feel?
6.
On the four-page spread, how does Bryan Collier, the
illustrator, let us know that the people walked in all kinds of
weather and all kinds of seasons? What can you see in the sky?
What can you see in the bushes and trees?
7.
Why is Rosa Parks a hero? How did she change history?
8.
The author, Nikki Giovanni, says Rosa Park had “integrity,
dignity, and quiet strength.” What do you think she means by “quiet
strength?”
Each
section of the Rosa graphic organizer could be a prompt for
group research projects in the classroom with students
researching, documenting, and then synthesizing the information
into a presentation, a paper, or a class book to be published.
Have students take the categories in the graphic organizer and
“group” them into Rosa as a woman, Rosa as a citizen, Rosa as an
activist and then write a biographical sketch of her based on
those categories using information from the book and from the
resources listed below.
Students
could also provide experiences in personal reaction to the book.
Students should write and then debate the pros and cons of
taking a stand that puts one in personal jeopardy.
Rosa Parks is listed on the
Girl Power! website listed below as being a powerful female
figure of historical significance. Do you think she
belongs in that group? Why or why not? Why are there
fewer female figures in our history books than males?
On-Line Resources:
Academy of
Achievement
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio1 PowerPoint
Presentation of Rosa Parks' life and Accomplishments
http://www.uis.edu/aeo/dtf/Rosa%20Parks.ppt
The African American Odyssey: Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aointro.html
Wikipedia - Biographic Information on Rosa Parks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks
Time Top 100: Most Important People of the Century
http://www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/parks01.html
AfroAmerican WebRing: E-Portal for Rosa
Parks
http://e-portals.org/Parks/
Thompson-Gale: Black History - Rosa Parks
http://www.gale.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/parks_r.htm
Girl Power!
http://www.girlpower.gov/girlarea/gpguests/RosaParks.htm
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