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Rosa Parks

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Rosa Parks (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

As of 6 August 2025, 03:58 (UTC), this page is active and open for discussion. An FAC coordinator will be responsible for closing the nomination.
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Nominator(s): Spookyaki (talk) 23:15, 4 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This article is about Rosa Parks, the civil rights activist. Her famous refusal to move probably needs no introduction, but she was also a committed activist throughout her life, not just as part of the civil rights movement, but as part of the broader Black freedom struggle as well. This is my first FA nomination, which I've been encouraged to undertake by @Noleander. They were the reviewer on my GA nom back in April. I have tried my best to prepare the article for FA, including via peer review and assistance from the GoCE. There have been some issues with the infobox image, which I think have been resolved, but I welcome any assistance with the image verification/selection process, which I have struggled with. In general, I welcome any comments and feedback on the article and hope we can get it to FA. Thank y'all for your time! Spookyaki (talk) 23:15, 4 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Comments from Noleander

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  • I did the GA and contributed to the PR, so may as well finish the trifecta
  • Ambigous After Parks was found guilty of violating state law, it was extended indefinitely,... the word "it" is ambiguous (could mean "state law"); Consider replacing with "the boycott"
  • Copyright of statue? Regarding image File:Rosa Parks statue NSHC.jpg ... that is a photo of a statue. I see the photo is free-use since it is by a govmt employee; but is there any issue related to the statue itself? Does the artist have a copyright that may be an issue? I don't know ... I'm just posing the question.
  • Citations/sources: format looks okay & uniform.
  • Image captions: end in period? The No. 2857 bus on which Parks was riding before her arrest (a GM "old-look" transit bus, serial number 1132) is now a museum exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum The policy WP:CAPFRAG says that captions that are full sentences should end in periods (but if the caption is a sentence fragement (which most captions are) no period is required). Also A plaque entitled "The Bus Stop" at Dexter Avenue and Montgomery Street—where Parks boarded the bus—pays tribute to her and the success of the Montgomery bus boycott
    • Added periods.
  • Clarify who is the owner When her rent became delinquent and her impending eviction was publicized in 2004, executives of the ownership company announced they had forgiven the back rent ... The "ownership company" may confuse some readers. Maybe replace with "landlord" or "landlords"; also consider linking to article Landlord
    • Replaced with "her landlord".
  • ... enlisted the support of local Black clergy, including the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Martin Luther King Jr. Reading fast, I read that as two different pastors. Consder ... enlisted the support Martin Luther King Jr (at that time the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church). Or maybe it is just me.
    • Rephrased a bit: WPC members distributed the leaflets throughout the Black community, and Nixon enlisted the support of several members of the local Black clergy, including Martin Luther King Jr, who was the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Does that help?
  • Consider moving the photo of the bus File:Rosa_parks_bus.jpg up higher, into the bus ride section(s). I know the photo is of the museum display, but it is still the bus.
It's a bit cramped up there, but I'll try. Let me know if you think it needs further adjustments. Spookyaki (talk) 00:51, 5 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Clarify In her account, she verbally resists Mr. Charlie's advances and denounces his racism. It is not clear if she "denounces his racism" means she denounced his racism during the assault; or if she did not (but did denounce the racism within her account written years later).
  • Copyright violation tool: I ran the tool and it reported one warning: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/rosa-parks ... I checked the report, and that warning is a false positive: the textual overlaps are quotations of primary sources, or some common phrases or proper names.
  • Image captions redux: For big captions that are - strictly speaking - sentence fragments, consider converting them to a full sentences. E.g. Parks being fingerprinted on February 22, 1956 after being arrested again alongside 73 others following a grand jury's indictment of hundreds of Black organizers for orchestrating the Montgomery bus boycott consider a full sentence such as Parks was fingerprinted on February 22, 1956 after being arrested again alongside 73 others following a grand jury's indictment of hundreds of Black organizers for orchestrating the Montgomery bus boycott. IMHO, that makes it easier for readers to scan/parse larger captions.
Adjusted some. Spookyaki (talk) 01:19, 5 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Image captions: Citations? Not a big deal for me, but some reviewers say that if a caption states a fact (regardless if the caption is a fragment or full sentence) the caption should have a citation. Just FYI ... not a show-stopper for me.
Added citations to statements that weren't just straightforward descriptions of the image. Can add more if necessary. Spookyaki (talk) 01:19, 5 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Better wording? Prior to Parks's refusal to move, numerous Black Montgomerians had engaged in similar acts of resistance against segregated public transportation. After her arrest in 1955, local activists decided to use it as a test case against segregation, leading the Women's Political Council (WPC) to organize a one-day bus boycott on the day of her trial. Something tells me this can be clearer & give a better sense of the time spans. Perhaps something like Starting in 1944, Black activists began to refuse to move from their seats, leading to numerous arrests. Local leaders were searching for a person who would be a good legal test case against segregation when Parks was arrested in 1955. She was deemed [or determined] to be a good candidate, so the Women's Political Council (WPC) organized a one-day bus boycott on the day of her trial. Or something like that.
    • I incorporated some of these suggestions. However, I think it's important to note that we don't actually know if resistance to segregated public transit began in 1944. Parks herself participated in one such act of resistance (albeit a much smaller one than in 1955) in 1943. My guess is that there were probably many earlier cases that we just haven't heard about. I also don't think it's correct to call all of these people activists. A lot of these people were presumably just living their lives. As a result, I think" Prior to Parks's refusal to move, several..." (or numerous) and "Black Montgomerians" are actually most precise. Spookyaki (talk) 07:09, 5 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • This looks like some word are missing ?? Nixon and King both gave speeches, while Abernathy read the demands of the organizers to the crowd, asking them to stand if they supported a continued boycott: # Courteous treatment on the buses; First-come, first-served seating with whites in front and blacks in back; Hiring of black drivers for the black bus routes.[91] I'm not sure what is happening here. Is this a formatting problem? What is the pound sign (#) doing? Is this a ballot of some items that were voted on? Suggest eliminating the bulleted text and replace with prose. Or maybe put into a blockquote template.
  • Support on prose. Have not checked images or sources. Great article! Noleander (talk) 00:07, 5 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Image review

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  • See WP:GALLERY
    • Wanted to see if I could fit all of the gallery images in the body of the article, per policy. I ultimately was, though I had to remove one of the images to get them all to fit. Let me know if I need to make any more adjustments. Spookyaki (talk) 07:09, 5 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Comments Support from RoySmith

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I also commented on this at PR, so I'll just leave this note. But I'll keep an eye on this and if it looks like it's needed more attention, I'll be happy to come back and do a full review.

My library has a copy of The rebellious life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, which you use to support the bit about the bus driver getting off the bus to call his supervisor. It turns out, it's a different edition than you used and it tells the story differently! The copy that's in IA says "Blake left the bus to call the supervisor from the pay phone on the corner. I was under orders to call them first", then goes into a bit of detail about the phone conversation and says he then placed another call to the police. The edition I have just says "Blake got off the bus to call the police". It's weird that they would recount the story differently.

@RoySmith: Oh, so looking at that cover, I think that's the Young Readers version, so it makes sense that they would simplify it. Spookyaki (talk) 21:42, 10 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'm surprised this has drawn so little attention, so I'm in for a deeper dive.

  • She investigated and organized campaigns around cases of racial and sexual violence ... should be rephrased to make it clear that she investigated cases, not investigated campaigns.
  • MOS:RACECAPS says it's OK to capitalize Black while leaving white in lower case, which is what this article does. Still, it seems odd to me, so noting it here while also acknowledging it is MOS-compliant.
    • So I do have a specific reason for this. In the United States, the word "black" can refer to distinct but interrelated concepts. One is "black" as race—that is, the socially constructed confluence of physical traits and social signifiers that constitute blackness. One corollary to this term, in the United States, would be "white" (lowercase). However, "Black" can also refer to an ethnic group—a people with a shared history and culture partially defined by the experience of being uprooted and forced into slavery. They are members of an "imagined community" of other Black people. Corollaries to this usage of the word would include "French," "Japanese," or "Nigerian". These different meanings are, crucially, connected. The term "Black", referring to the ethnic group is perhaps distinct from "black", referring to the race, but is also partially defined by the racial imaginary of "blackness". As such, I think in the American context, it makes sense to treat "Black" as both a racial and ethnic identifier, and therefore to capitalize it. Meanwhile, there is no reason to capitalize "white", but you would capitalize "American", "Irish", "Italian", etc. I should note that I am not Black, and that maybe this is a misguided assessment, but this is why I generally use this schema in the American context. Spookyaki (talk) 21:52, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • It's a little odd that in "Pine Level, Alabama" you only link the town but in "Abbeville, Alabama" you link both the town and the state.
  • fter a grand jury failed to indict the perpetrators I suggest "declined" instead of "failed".
  • Montgomery's Black residents conducted boycotts against segregated streetcars I don't think a "streetcar" is the same thing as a "bus".
    • That is true. I think the difficulty is that Theoharis calls them buses. From what I can tell, the streetcars were replaced by buses in 1936.[1] For now, I think I'll just replace "bus" with "streetcar", since that's logically what they were and since that's the term that Meier/Rudwick were, but if you'd like, I can also add an explanatory footnote explaining that Theoharis calls them buses. Spookyaki (talk) 21:52, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • the first ten rows ... the last ten rows this is a little confusing given the adjacent illustration of a bus with only 12 rows.
  • Abernathy read the demands of the organizers to the crowd, asking them to stand if they supported a continued boycott" I had to read this a couple of times to figure out how to parse it correctly. I'd put the list of demands immediately after "read the demands of the organizers to the crowd", and move "asking them to stand ..." after the list.
  • The decision to not have Parks speak I don't know what the MOS says about split infinitives, but I think they're not considered grammatically correct.

That's all I see. RoySmith (talk) 17:51, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your review! Hopefully I have been able to sufficiently address your concerns. Spookyaki (talk) 21:52, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
You have, supporting. RoySmith (talk) 11:26, 25 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

One more item to add, and this is a vague one. Ganesha811 mentioned below the issue of non-American readers needing additional context. This is indeed a concern. As an American, I grew up learning about Parks in school, so most of the events described in this article were already familiar to me. I've been to the Henry Ford Museum and visited the bus exhibit. This certainly influenced how receptive I was to the story. I hope this gets reviewed by some editors who are not from the US and not familiar with Parks already. They will give us a better take on how well the context and background is presented. RoySmith (talk) 12:02, 26 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Support from Ganesha811

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I should have time to review this over the upcoming week. I'll take a first pass at it tomorrow! It's a big project for a first nomination! —Ganesha811 (talk) 21:54, 21 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hoping to wrap up this review over the weekend. So far so good. —Ganesha811 (talk) 02:30, 26 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Sounds good! Thanks for taking the time to review this. Spookyaki (talk) 02:42, 26 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Lead

Body

  • Throughout the article, she is sometimes referred to as 'Rosa' and sometimes as 'Parks'. From what I can see she is generally called 'Rosa' when the sentence also mentions her husband. Wouldn't it be simpler to just call her Parks throughout and refer to her husband, when mentioned, as 'Raymond'? It also may make more sense to call her 'McCauley' before her marriage, as that was her name then.
    • I see now that MOS:SAMESURNAME says that "when referring to the person who is the subject of the article", you should "use just the surname unless the reference is part of a list of family members or if use of the surname alone will be confusing". This is... A bit vague to me (what constitutes a list of family members?), but it does seem to justify changing some instances of Rosa to Parks. I've done so in cases where it's clear who "Parks" would be referring to. When referring to them as a couple, I've opted to use "Rosa and Raymond", though I suppose I could use "the Parkses".
There doesn't seem to be any guidance on using maiden names, but I did a cursory check through some other Featured Articles on women with distinct maiden and married names who are better known by their married names (see Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Green/Current Featured Content). 19 use the person's married name (or the relevant variation) throughout the article.[a] 14 use the person's maiden name until they're married.[b] Interestingly, 13 use the person's forename until they're married.[c] A handful of articles also use alternative naming schemes. Overall, this indicates a slight preference for using the married name throughout the article, but nothing definitive. In any case, I don't see any reason to change it. Spookyaki (talk) 01:05, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Given that there's no clear guideline, I think it's fine the way you've adjusted it. It is funny that two of the FAs you put in the second category are ones I nominated - using maiden names until marriage is my preference, so that's skewing the numbers here a little! Anyway, no need to change.
  • Alabama and other southern states this paragraph has little to do with her Early life, except for the last sentence. I can see why it's there, but maybe it (and some other similar sentences found later in the article) should be moved to its own subsection, called 'Context of segregation' or something like that - definitely do come up with something better than that if you can.
    • I don't really think that's necessary. Why would the sociopolitical context in which she was born not impact her early life? Spookyaki (talk) 01:05, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
      • I'm sure it did, but I'm saying it's not clear to me, the reader, why it's dropped in the middle of these paragraphs. You could move it earlier, to the start of the section, or later, and integrate it with the material on how bus segregation functioned in Montgomery.
        • Hmmm.... Okay, I think I probably put it there because that's around when Parks would first be experiencing conscious thoughts (she's basically two at the end of the previous paragraph). Admittedly, that's a pretty esoteric organization scheme. However, I'm not really sure where it would be better-placed. I don't think it fits very well at the beginning of the section, mostly because of the last sentence. I would say that Parks's memories of childhood probably don't extend to when she was two. However, I would say that I am strongly opposed to it going later. The sociopolitical context of Parks's childhood is important for understanding her early life. Maybe I could add an introductory sentence to the paragraph better tying it to Parks's life? For example, "Growing up in Alabama, Parks faced a society characterized by racial segregation and violence". Spookyaki (talk) 02:40, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
        I think that's a reasonable compromise. —Ganesha811 (talk) 11:46, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Is her tonsillectomy important in some way? Seems like fairly trivial detail.
  • I think the mention of Murdus Dixon can be cut and just the first part of that sentence retained.
  • In 1931, Rosa was introduced mention her age and his here.
  • Where did she graduate from high school? When did she and Raymond move to Montgomery/buy a house?
    • The former is already answered in the article: "In 1933, Rosa completed her high school education with encouragement from Raymond". As for the latter, I can't find a precise date, but per Brinkley, it was soon after they married, so added a sentence indicating that. Spookyaki (talk) 01:05, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
      • So she graduated from the lab school? Or the Montgomery Industrial School? It's not clear where she graduated from in the text.
        • Ooooooh I see, thank you for highlighting lol. Not sure. Here's what three sources have to say:

          To help pull themselves out of these dire straits, Raymond Parks encouraged his young wife to go back to school for her high school diploma, which she earned in 1933. "At that time only a small percentage of black people in Montgomery were high school graduates," Rosa Parks related. "In 1940, seven years after I got my diploma, only seven out of every hundred had as much as a high school diploma." (Brinkley 2000, pp. 41-42)

          While Raymond fought for the Scottsboro Boys and tried to protect Rosa from any repercussions due to his activities, he also encouraged her to return to school to complete her high school education. In 1933, at the age of 20, Rosa Parks earned her high school diploma. (Hanson 2011, p. 25)

          Their marriage was a strong partnership grounded in mutual respect, and after they wed, Raymond encouraged Rosa to go on and finish her high school education. Rosa earned her diploma in 1933 at the age of twenty. This accomplishment put Rosa in the minority in terms of education of African Americans. (Mace 2021, p. 42)

          • If you can find a source that mentions this, I think it'd be good to have. It's a baseline biographical detail, not 100% necessary, but I think worth spending some time trying to find. —Ganesha811 (talk) 11:50, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
            • Unfortunately, can't find anything. From what I can tell, this claim is usually attributed to Parks's 1992 memoir, where she says the following:

              My husband was very supportive of my desire to finish school, and I went back to school after we were married. I received my high school diploma in 1933 when I was twenty years old. At that time only a small percentage of black people in Montgomery were high school graduates. In 1940, seven years after I got my diploma, only seven out of every hundred had as much as a high school education.

So just the date, nothing about where she actually got the diploma. Spookyaki (talk) 21:18, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Fair enough, if it's not findable nothing we can do. —Ganesha811 (talk) 04:07, 25 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • an alternative reality to the ugly racial policies are these Parks' words or Brinkley's?
    • Parks's:

      "You might just say Maxwell opened my eyes up," Parks believed. "It was an alternative reality to the ugly racial policies of Jim Crow."

I think that's already sufficiently attributed. Spookyaki (talk) 01:05, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Re: secretary - if the [she]'s are replacing "I", I think there's no reason to not just use "I", the reader won't be confused
  • Recy Taylor Was that judgment by the Defender contemporary or retrospective?
    • Not clear from the source:

      With support from local people, she helped organize what the Chicago Defender called the "strongest campaign for equal justice to be seen in a decade."

Checking this did lead me to find the Wikipedia page for the committee, though, though, so linked that. Spookyaki (talk) 01:05, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • and kept them in place the quote can probably end here, the rest isn't necessary
  • first time in her adult life - this seems to slightly contradict what was said earlier about Maxwell AFB. Do any sources comment on this?
    • I don't really think it's contradictory. Maxwell was integrated, yes, and that seems to have had an impact on Rosa. However, that's not the same as the sort of harmony she seemed so struck by at Highlander. Here's the full paragraph that sentence is derived from, it it helps:

      The respite she found at Highlander was evident in her descriptions from a 1956 interview in which she described its “relaxing atmosphere” that was "more than a vacation but an education in itself." She found “for the first time in my adult life that this could be a unified society, that there was such a thing as people of all races and backgrounds meeting and having workshops and living together in peace and harmony." The atmosphere proved a salve for some of the psychic exhaustion she had been feeling and began to transform what Parks imagined was possible, a society not riven with racism. "I had heard there was such a place, but I hadn’t been there."

It seems evident to me that she found both experiences illuminating, probably in different ways, regarding the possibilities of an integrated society. Spookyaki (talk) 01:05, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I think it'd be good to expand on this slightly in the text, just a phrase or parenthetical.
Okay, I think I slightly mischaracterized the quote. Technically, she didn't say that it was the first time she had witnessed people of all races and backgrounds interacting harmoniously, she said that it was the first time in her adult life that she could envision a "unified society", then described the integrated nature of Highlander. I made some adjustments to hopefully make things more clear: Parks enjoyed her time at Highlander, where Black and white people worked, cooked, and lived together as equals. She later recalled it as one of the rare moments in her life when she felt no racial hostility and the first time in her adult life that she could envision a "unified society", describing how "people of all races and backgrounds" interacted harmoniously. Does that seem sufficient? Spookyaki (talk) 02:40, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Yep, I think that fixes the issue, thanks. —Ganesha811 (talk) 11:50, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Why did the NAACP want to start with / focus on bus segregation particularly? A sentence or two on that would be helpful, given the pervasiveness of segregation in all areas of life.
    • What do you think is missing? The "Montgomery buses: law and prevailing customs" section describes the conditions on Montgomery buses and how it impacted Black people's daily lives. The "Refusal to move" sections covers several noted instances of defiance against bus segregation, including two that the NAACP and WPC rallied around before Parks. I think it's pretty clear why the NAACP and WPC, two Black civic organizations, would want to address it. Spookyaki (talk) 01:05, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
      • Yeah, the article does a good job talking about bus segregation, but there were many forms of segregation - education, housing, social, etc. Why start with transportation? If the sources don't cover this, that's ok, but it would be good to add if possible.
        • I mean, they didn't? Parks herself was working with the NAACP on sexual violence cases and voting rights throughout the 1930s and 1940s. They were working on addressing multiple aspects of racism in the Jim Crow South, and Rosa Parks presented them with an opportunity to address transportation in particular. Spookyaki (talk) 02:41, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
          • Hmm, fair enough I guess. If possible, could you adjust the wording slightly to make this a little clearer? If you don't think a change makes sense that's ok too, it's just a question that occurred to me, the reader, as I got through that section. —Ganesha811 (talk) 11:50, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
            • Okay, I tried to expand on it a little: Many Black riders rallied around the idea of a boycott in the aftermath of Colvin's arrest. Black activists, including members of the WPC and NAACP, considered both Colvin and Smith as test cases for a community bus boycott. The WPC was particularly focused on bus integration, partly because it was an issue that significantly affected Black women. However, both the WPC and NAACP ultimately determined that Colvin and Smith were were not suitable candidates for such a test case. Is that sufficient, do you think? Spookyaki (talk) 21:18, 24 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
              Yep, that looks great, thanks. —Ganesha811 (talk) 03:54, 25 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • The Theoharis quote on what Parks "might" have said is a bit too long. It seems very hypothetical - shorten and integrate into text. The quote block makes it too prominent.
    • Shortened to According to Theoharis, while Parks was celebrated as a heroine by the crowd at that moment, she was excluded from the movement's later strategic discussions. Spookyaki (talk) 18:19, 26 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Any sources mention her reaction to her second arrest when the boycott was declared illegal? She was bailed out, one presumes?
    • Yes, and thank you for pointing this out. Digging deeper into this revealed a number of inconsistencies regarding the actual number of people indicted/arrested, and I had to add a footnote. Here's what I settled on: In February, a state grand jury declared the boycott illegal, indicting a number of the boycott's leaders, including Parks, many of whom were arrested.[d] Amidst protests at the courthouse, the arrestees were released on bond. Ultimately, only King was tried after the indictment. The boycott continued. Spookyaki (talk) 18:19, 26 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Given her poor health at the time, is it accurate to say she "boycotted" the 2003 NAACP Image Awards? Had she attended previous iterations of the event? I know "boycott" is the word the source uses, but it doesn't mention any particular statement or communication from her. Did other sources cover this as well?
    • My understanding is that a TV series about her was actually up for an award, but she refused to go. She had attended at least one previous award ceremony in 1997 (six years earlier),[2] so I guess it's not totally implausible that she might have tried to attend otherwise. Spookyaki (talk) 18:19, 26 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Ok! Thanks for your hard work on this. With those final changes I am happy to support, with the note that, as RoySmith says, it would be great to also hear from a non-American about how smoothly the article reads and provides needed context. —Ganesha811 (talk) 21:55, 26 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Coord note

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Just a note that this nom still requires a source review for reliability plus (given this in the nominator's first time at FAC) a spotcheck of sources for accuracy and avoidance of close paraphrasing or plagiarism. I've made the requests at the top of WT:FAC. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 11:00, 30 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

To whoever wants to do spot checks: I think you'll probably need actual copies of some of the books I relied more heavily on (Brinkley, Mace, Theoharis), but if you need access to a book that's just a page or two, I can email them to you. Spookyaki (talk) 16:42, 30 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Source review and spotcheck

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Well, this is a big topic. To my relief, it's also not so newspaper dominant as US political topics often are. Source formatting seems mostly good, I remember seeing an art magazine as a source and went back to check if it was used for something that an art magazine is a RS for but now can't find it. David Garrow raises some questions about their reliability. What makes "Rosa Parks: Tired of giving in" a reliable source? "The Thunder of Angels: The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the People Who Broke the Back of Jim Crow" has a fairly critical review. Spot-check:

The art magazine (Artnews) is listed as one of many sources that asserts the innocence of Gary Tyler. I think it's probably a reliable source about the magazine (or at least the author)'s own stance on the issue. Maybe you could argue that it's not sufficiently notable. As for Rosa Parks: Tired of Giving In and The Thunder of Angels, if you think they're unreliable, I can try to find alternative sources. Spookyaki (talk) 16:28, 31 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
No, I am wondering what makes them high-quality reliable sources, as it's not clear from an analysis. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 06:59, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Just replaced both. That did necessitate some pretty significant rewrites in the "Early life" section, but I think it's probably for the best. Spookyaki (talk) 06:09, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • 3 Can't find this in GBooks.
    • Supporting snippet:

      Her grandparents had been enslaved. The product of a union between his mother and the slave owner’s son, Rosa’s grandfather had "no discernible features of black people," but Sylvester Edwards was a committed race man. (Theoharis 2015, p. 3)

Admittedly, this does not directly state that it was a rape, but it's heavily implied, besides-which I'm not sure that a slave could meaningfully consent to sex with their master. Spookyaki (talk) 16:28, 31 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
That sounds a bit too WP:SYNTH, or do we call every relation between a slave and owner rape on Wikipedia (hasn't edited many articles on this topic)? Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 06:59, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Fair enough, went with Her maternal grandfather, Sylvester Edwards, was the child of an enslaved woman and a plantation owner's son. Spookyaki (talk) 06:09, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • 33 Can't access this source.
    • Supporting snippets:

      When Rosa Parks returned to Abbeville almost thirty years later to investigate the rape of Recy Taylor, she was, in a sense, coming home. Though she had not seen her father in years, she remained kin to a sizable portion of the black community there. She could count on the McCauleys for a hot meal, a warm bed, and all the local gossip. News of the gang rape of Mrs. Taylor had reverberated through the sharecroppers’ cabins and the tattered gray shacks in the colored section of town. Taylor, her husband, and their three-year-old daughter, Joyce Lee, rented one of these cabins at the bottom of a rust-colored hill just outside of town. Here Parks scribbled notes as she listened to Taylor testify about the vicious attack.'° Her time was limited. Deputy Sheriff Lewey Corbitt, known among blacks in Abbeville as a mean man with a propensity for violence, drove repeatedly past the house. Finally, he burst into the cabin and ordered Parks out of town. "I don’t want any troublemakers here in Abbeville," he said. "If you don’t go," he said, "I'll lock you up." Parks gathered up her notes and carried Taylor’s story back to Montgomery, where she and the city’s most militant black activists organized a campaign to defend Recy Taylor. (McGuire 2010, pp. 5-6)

OK. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 06:59, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Rosa Parks carried Recy Taylor’s story from Abbeville to Montgomery, where she helped organize her defense. E. D. Nixon, a union man who headed the Alabama Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; Rufus A. Lewis, who directed both a local funeral home and the football team at Alabama State; and E. G. Jackson, who served as editor of the Alabama Tribune, all signed on to help. With support from national labor unions, African-American organizations, and women’s groups, Rosa Parks and her local allies formed the Alabama Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor. (McGuire 2010, p. 13)

While p. 14 discusses Taylors' experiences, Parks's involvement is mostly not discussed, so will probably omit it from the footnote. Spookyaki (talk) 16:28, 31 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • 45 OK
  • 46 Where is the part about Montgomery preceding the state?
    • I think I based that on the fact that the city statutes were passed in 1900 and the first statewide statutes were passed in 1902 (in Louisiana and Mississippi). I see now that the source also says that "...in South Carolina and Alabama, city ordinances and streetcar company regulations provided a substitute for state action". Seemingly there were eventually state statutes introduced, as Parks was charged on them, but if you think this is too much WP:OR, can remove. Spookyaki (talk) 16:28, 31 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I think this is fine, then. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 06:59, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • 48 OK, although GBooks doesn't show pagenumber.
  • 68 Is the organization response in the other source?
    • Yes.

      Robinson, [leader of the WPC] an English professor at Alabama State University, had experienced her own incident of humiliation on a Montgomery bus, which fueled her personal mission to force the city to treat black riders with respect. Robinson’s personal crusade was useless without the support of all of Montgomery’s black citizens. When Claudette Colvin was arrested and announced that she was willing to fight the charges, however, she lit a fuse of patent indignation in the black community. Robinson, along with Rosa Parks, who was secretary of the NAACP, and other black women began raising money for what was expected to be a long and difficult battle in the courts. (Phibbs 2009, p. 8)

Much debate revolved around taking Colvin’s case to the federal level. Increasingly, activists felt she was not the right model case. As Jeanne Theoharis noted, some saw Colvin as "'feisty,' 'uncontrollable,' 'profane,' and 'emotional'". These adjectives likely were euphemisms for her socioeconomic class. E. D. Nixon and Jo Ann Robinson, in particular, disagreed about Colvin. Nixon saw it as a poor test case, whereas Robinson wanted to carry Colvin to the federal courts. Eventually, Nixon’s arguments won out, and local activists began to distance themselves from Colvin. When Nixon and others learned she was pregnant and soon to be an unwed teenage mother, there was no longer any question about Colvin as test case. Parks recounted that black activists ended their work with Colvin because "if the white press got hold of that information, they would have a field day. They’d call her a bad girl, and her case wouldn’t have a chance. So the decision was made to wait until we had a plaintiff who was more upstanding before we went ahead and invested any more time and effort and money". Theoharis argued that leaders already determined Colvin was out even before learning of her pregnancy, and the impregnation served as an excuse for the previous decision. (Mace 2021, p. 90)

Robinson and the WPC continued their efforts to unite the black community. Their hope for a legal case got a further boost seven months later on October 22, 1954, when another black teenager, Mary Louise Smith, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white rider. Once again, E.D. Nixon initiated plans for a community wide bus boycott, yet when he questioned Smith’s character he felt she wasn’t a suitable icon for the fight either. Frustrated with the treatment of women riders on the city buses, Robinson and other WPC members were tired of searching for the perfect symbol for their cause. Their plans for a boycott were ready and at the very first opportunity, it would be put into effect, no matter what the men said. The black women of Montgomery were ready to fight. (Phibbs 2009, p. 9)

Can send pages, if you'd like. Spookyaki (talk) 16:28, 31 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
That works. I wonder if the motivations should be included; I vaguely recall that one thing about Rosa Parks is that she drew so much attention because she was allegedly a "better victim" than many other women who ran afoul of the segregation rules. But that's a vague impression only. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 06:59, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
That's discussed in the "Historiography" section, last paragraph. Spookyaki (talk) 06:09, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • 75 OK
  • 80 Can't access this source.
Need a quote or something. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 06:59, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, sorry, missed this.

Later that evening when they took Parks home, Nixon discussed with Durr the possibility of her case being the test case the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP had been looking for to challenge the legality of segregated bus seating. It was scripted perfectly. Rosa Parks was a prominent and respected member of the black community who had to ride the bus every day to work for a living. She had the manners and speech of an educated woman, and there was nothing negative anyone could say about Parks except that she had been born black. As Nixon expressed it, "Her character was untouchable."

According to Durr, "The only flaw with the case as he [Durr] saw it was that the charges would first be heard in state court rather than federal court. But there were ways to move cases. Otherwise, the circumstances were highly favorable. There were no extraneous charges to cloud the segregation issue, and Rosa Parks would make a good impression on white judges because she had a firm quiet spirit, which would be needed for the long battle ahead. This was enough for Nixon; he knew instinctively that Rosa Parks was without a peer as a potential symbol for Montgomery’s Negroes—she was humble enough to be claimed by the common folk, and yet dignified enough in manner, speech and dress to command the respect of the white classes."

When Nixon approached Parks with the idea of fighting the charges, she felt compelled to consult her family first, because she understood how enormous the ramifications of her decision would be. Although her experiences with the NAACP would be excellent training ground for the fight ahead, her husband, Raymond, was not thrilled that she would reenter this traditionally forbidden zone by choice. Parks was terrified that if she entered this very public and very political arena, her arrest would be considered more than an isolated incident and her life would be in danger. In spite of his warnings and her own personal concerns, Parks decided to fight on the presumption that it would make a difference for other black citizens in Montgomery. So without foresight, the wheels were now set in motion to secure equal treatment under the law for all black Americans.

The network of local black leaders was notified. Fred Gray agreed to be Parks' attorney. It was Gray who called Jo Ann Robinson to share the news of the coming court case. Gray knew of the WPC’s plan for a bus boycott. He felt that Robinson would agree with the other local black leaders that now was the time to implement a community wide bus boycott.(Phibbs 2009, pp. 15-16)

Jo Ann Robinson, a professor at Alabama State College who headed the Women’s Political Council (WPC)... (Thaoharis 2015, p. 50)

  • 91 Partially supported by the snippet; does the rest explain the "They"?
    • Not sure which part you can't access, but it's covered in Mace:

      While Parks tended the phone at Gray’s office, the attorney went to a meeting of clergy and other local leaders. The group, predominately male, formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to coordinate the protest efforts. (Mace 2021, p. 112)

Again, can send you the page if you'd like. Spookyaki (talk) 16:28, 31 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
OK, this works. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 06:59, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • 96 Insufficient snippet.
    • How so?:

      The day after the boycott began, [December 6] King met with the press to make it clear that the boycott would only end when the black community’s demands were met. He stressed that the request was modest and reasonable and should pose no problem for local authorities. (Phibbs 2009, p. 36)

      Spookyaki (talk) 16:28, 31 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
GBooks snippets don't display the same text for everyone and the part displayed to me was insufficient. That one works, but it's something worth keeping in mind when using GBooks. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 06:59, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Didn't use Gbooks, though I did notice that my link for Phibbs was incorrect, so removed it. Spookyaki (talk) 06:09, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • 107 Insufficient snippet.
    • Again, what aspect is insufficient? Do you think the connection between the Highlander job and the voter-registration job is too tenuous?

      As 1957 began, Durr remained convinced that the next needed step was a mass voter-registration campaign... Later in the week, Horton offered Parks a full-time job at Highlander. But Parks’s mother said no. "She didn’t want to be 'nowhere I don’t see nothing but white folks,' so that ended that," Parks explained. "Anyway, I was in no position to take off from Montgomery and stay somewhere else at that time." Septima Clark also maintained that Highlander wanted Parks to speak in parts of Alabama and Mississippi and Louisiana "but she didn’t feel as if she could do it. She felt... that the hostility was so great. She didn’t think that she could do that." (Theoharis 2015, p. 137)

The plan of action Nixon and Parks put forward differed from the approach advocated by King and the ministers who in January 1957 formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King and Abernathy thought their next target should be the airport, which Parks, along with Gray and Graetz, thought was foolish given how few blacks actually used the airport. (Theoharis 1015, p. 137)

Divisions between King and Nixon that had simmered during the boycott heated up in the MIA. And Parks sided with Nixon. (Theoharis 2015, p. 137)

Spookyaki (talk) 16:28, 31 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
See above, but this works. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 06:59, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • 111 Can't find this in GBooks.
    • Supporting snippets:

      For their first month in Detroit, Rosa and Raymond Parks and Leona McCauley shared a bedroom upstairs at Thomas Williamson's house on Fleming Street. Then McCauley found the trio a small apartment on the west side's Euclid Avenue... (Brinkley 2000, pp. 177-178)

At one NAACP function in Boston in October 1957 she met Alonzo G. Moron, president of Virginia's Hampton Institute—the renowned black college on the Chesapeake Bay at which Booker T Washington had been educated—and he quickly offered her the position of hostess at his campus's guest residence. The job had three components: assisting the Holly Tree Inn and Annex's off-campus guests and resident faculty members, overseeing the schedules of its four full- time maids, and running the dining room. (Brinkley 2000, p. 178)

The three-story American colonial inn where Rosa worked, constructed in 1888, included on its first floor the office for the hostess, two small living rooms for informal entertainment, and the kitchen and faculty dining room. (Brinkley 2000, p. 179)

That Christmas, two years after she had set off the bus boycott that made King's name, Parks returned home to Detroit for the holidays and decided to stay. (Brinkley 2000, p. 181)

Spookyaki (talk) 16:28, 31 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Where is the part about the living arragements in Detroit? Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 06:59, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
That's in the first snippet. Spookyaki (talk) 06:09, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • 128 OK
  • 139 Insufficient snippet.
    • Supporting snippets:

      Parks founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development with Elaine Eason Steele in 1987. (Theoharis 2015, p. 234)

The institute, like the youth wing of the Montgomery NAACP she had founded four decades earlier, sought to develop leadership skills in young people to bring them into the struggle for civil rights. A cross between Miss White’s and Highlander, the institute stressed the importance of self-respect, comportment, and education for liberation to Detroit students. (Theoharis 2015, p. 234)

The institute sent young people both south and north through its "Pathways to Freedom" program to engage students in field research and immerse them in black history, including the opportunity to retrace the path of the Underground Railroad. (Theoharis 2015, p. 234)

Do you think that the "influenced" claim is too strong? Spookyaki (talk) 16:28, 31 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I think the bigger issue is that these snippets don't mention the role of Parker's experience. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 06:59, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I think we'e saying the same thing. The source describes the institute as a "cross between Miss White’s and Highlander". I'm asking if you think it's too strong a claim to say that Parks's experiences at Miss White’s and Highlander "influenced" the institute based on that. Spookyaki (talk) 06:09, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • 146 Insufficient snippet for the first.
    • Supporting snippets:

      While saddened by the attack, Mrs. Parks did not see it as a sign of community dysfunction, rejecting the idea that the biggest problem facing the black community was now black people themselves. Rather, she urged people not to read too much into it. "Many gains have been made—But as you can see, at this time we still have a long way to go." Rejecting the media’s characterization of Skipper as representative of a new, degenerate cohort of black youth (a view held by many black people of her generation), she prayed for him “and the conditions that have made him this way." (Theoharis 2015, p. 234)

She draws on the incident to emphasize the importance of persevering and remaining hopeful in the face of suffering, evoking the freedom song "We Shall Overcome," the main anthem of the civil rights movement: "I pray for this young man and the conditions in our country that have made him this way. I urge people not to read too much into the attack..." (Richardson 2021, p. 101)

Spookyaki (talk) 16:28, 31 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
OK although maybe it should say "made him this way" rather than just "this way". Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 06:59, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Changed. Spookyaki (talk) 06:09, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Unfortunately it times out. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 06:59, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Even on the archive? It doesn't for me, but okay. Here's the supporting snippets:

In his chambers in Detroit, Judge Damon Keith holds a copy of a check in his hand... "It’s for $2,000, dated November the first, 1994. It’s from Little Caesars Enterprises to Riverfront Apartments, and I know it was just one of many," said Keith, 91, who has been a U.S. Court of Appeals judge in Detroit for the last 46 years.

[...] When Ilitch read about Keith’s plan and Taubman’s promise in the newspaper, he called the judge and said he would pay for Parks’ housing for as long as necessary. (Parks passed away in 2005 at the age of 92). Keith served as the executor of the trust established for Parks’ housing. (Botta 2014)

Actually, looking over this source again, it does seem like it was more Keith than Botta who said this, so reattributing the quote: According to judge Damon Keith, funds from Ilitch were regularly deposited into a trust on Parks's behalf. Spookyaki (talk) 06:09, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • 170 I guess OK?
  • 183 OK
  • 197 OK
  • 209 Seems like the wrong source.
    • Supporting snippet:

      The other major film on Parks, the documentary Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks, produced by HBO and the Southern Poverty Law Center, also tackles Parks's influence. (Richardson 2013, p. 57)

      Spookyaki (talk) 16:28, 31 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Where is "short"? Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 06:59, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, that's in the subsequent citation. I'll move the Richardson citation to the end of the sentence so it's clear that both apply to the whole thing. Spookyaki (talk) 06:09, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 08:31, 31 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Jo-Jo Eumerus: Thanks for doing the spot check! Responded to all questions here, I think. If you want me to send any pages, let me know. Spookyaki (talk) 16:28, 31 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Jo-Jo Eumerus: And replied again. Spookyaki (talk) 06:09, 5 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Comments Edwininlondon

[edit]

With the caveat that I am not an expert in the field, a few comments on prose:

  • in defiance of Jim Crow laws --> I believe it would be helpful for non-US readers to add a little info here, so that they do not have to click through. Something along the lines of "... in defiance of racial segregation laws". I would also add the year of this event.
  • with public viewings and memorial services in Montgomery; Washington, D.C., where she lay .. --> I had to pause and parse this list. It's probably just me, but I would favour a list with identcal structure for each item. For example: After Parks's death in 2005, she was honored in three cities: in Montgomery, with public viewings and memorial services; in Washington, D.C., where she lay in state at the United States Capitol rotunda; and in Detroit, where she was ultimately interred at Woodlawn Cemetery.
    • Went with After Parks's death in 2005, she was honored with public viewings and memorial services in three cities: in Montgomery; in Washington, D.C., where she lay in state at the United States Capitol rotunda; and in Detroit, where she was ultimately interred at Woodlawn Cemetery. Spookyaki (talk) 15:03, 3 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • The trial took between five and 30 minutes --> MOS:NUMNOTES: "Comparable values near one another should be all spelled out or all in figures"
  • 5,000 people attended --> MOS:NUMNOTES says not to start sentence with number
  • footnote g: it seems to me somehow this could be resolved with sources from city archives or local newspapers, or am I wrong? Congress website says it is 1976.

That's all I could find. Nice work. Edwininlondon (talk) 13:45, 3 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Edwininlondon: Thank you for your comments! Spookyaki (talk) 15:03, 3 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

References

  1. ^ "Montgomery Streetcar". HawkinsRails. 2022. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
  2. ^ Doggett, Jolie A. (2019). "50 Years Of Stars And Style At The NAACP Image Awards". HuffPost. Retrieved 26 July 2025.
  3. ^ "Street renamed". Escanaba Daily Press. July 15, 1976. Retrieved August 5, 2025.

Notes

  1. ^ Anne Hutchinson, Bazy Tankersley, Bronwyn Oliver, Constance Stokes, Debora Green, Dorothy Olsen, Elizabeth David, Elizabeth Raffald, Fanny Bullock Workman, Hannah Glasse, Jane Grigson, Margaret Sanger, Maria Rundell, Mary Martha Sherwood, Maya Angelou, Sophie Blanchard, Harriet Tubman, Ursula Franklin, and Ursula K. Le Guin
  2. ^ Anna Filosofova, Anna Lee Fisher, Barbara Bush, Beverly White, Eunice Newton Foote, Fatima Whitbread, Frances Cleveland, Grace Coolidge, Josephine Butler, Lisa Nowak, Lou Henry Hoover, Maria Trubnikova, Shannon Lucid, and Theodora Kroeber
  3. ^ Edith Roosevelt, Elizabeth Willing Powel, Emmeline Pankhurst, Etta Lemon, Isabella Beeton, Kate Sheppard, Laura Secord, Margaret Lea Houston, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Martha Layne Collins, Mary Shelley, Ruth Norman, and Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe
  4. ^ A contemporary news story from the New York Daily News puts the number indicted at 113 and the number arrested at 73. However, according to Hanson, 89 were indicted and 75 were arrested. According to Mace, the city was prepared to arrest 115, but 89 were ultimately indicted, and 75 were arrested.
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