Jeanne Theoharis is distinguished professor of political science at Brooklyn College of CUNY and the author of the award-winning The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, recently turned into a documentary directed by Johanna Hamilton and Yoruba Richen, now streaming on Peacock.
Rosa Parks was born on this day in 1913. Far from being a face of respectability politics, she was a defiant and seasoned working-class organizer who despised the cringing submission that Jim Crow induced and who doggedly fought oppression in all its forms.
Declaring white nationalism a form of terrorism won’t combat white nationalism — but it will grant more arbitrary powers to a carceral state that preys on the most vulnerable.