A Lifetime of Struggle.

• Author: Gilmore, Brian
• Position: Rosa Parks Beyond the Bus: Life, Lessons, and Leadership

"I knew Mrs. Rosa Parks in a way that few people ever experience a truly inspirational person. She was far more than an icon of history and a survivor. She was a person whose impact will forever be among us. Mrs. Parks was an 'influencer' long before the term became trendy within social media circles."

So writes H.H. Leonards in her recent book, Rosa Parks Beyond the Bus: Life, Lessons, and Leadership, about arguably the greatest public citizen the United States has ever known. Leonards, founder and chair of the Mansion on O Street and the O Street Museum Foundation, headquartered in Washington, D.C., took Parks into her home in 1994, soon after Parks was robbed in her own home in Detroit. It is that act of selfless friendship that brings us this necessary book.

Parks resided in Washington, D.C., for ten years, unbeknownst to most Washingtonians--including me--and Leonards got to know her well.

The book is striking for what it is: a biography about Rosa Parks, a person who few have deeply examined, despite the importance of her contributions to the American experiment and human progress. Besides historian Douglas Brinkley's biography, Rosa Parks: A Life, Jeanne Theoharis's The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, and countless children's books, Parks is mostly absent from the world's literary landscape.

For these reasons, Leonards's book is a pleasant surprise, and perhaps the beginning of a deeper look into Parks's life and work. To Leonards's credit, she immediately moves beyond the obvious. Everyone knows why Parks is important and about the personal sacrifice she made for justice and freedom. Instead, Leonards provides us with a view of Parks's life as a vulnerable human being with emotions and a personal history that shaped her before and after the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1956.

Parks had a loving husband, Raymond, who helped make much of her work possible. She and her brother both had distant relationships with their father, something that Parks worked tirelessly to mend.

Anecdotes like this prove there is much more to Parks than a bus seat she refused to relinquish. As Leonards writes in the introduction, "I believe it is time for the world to celebrate Mrs. Parks beyond the bus--her life, philosophy, and devotion to all people. I am forever grateful to have shared an intimate decade with her."

Leonards's book is a series of vignettes that bring Parks to life as a full person, not the larger-than-life, yet neglected, American...