Protesting with Rosa Parks details the long and winding history of the intersections between Black activism and travel. John K. Bollard recounts the experiences of more than ninety-five people who stood up against the oppressive legality of Jim Crow on stagecoaches, trains, streetcars, steamboats, buses, planes, and even elevators. Beginning with the little-known Emiliano Mundrucu and the indefatigable David Ruggles, through John Lewis to Sandra Bland and Tyre Nichols, Bollard gives us the one-hundred-ninety-year-long story of both influential civil rights leaders and private citizens who took a determined and dangerous stance against racism as they traveled. While the mainstream historical narrative often gives the impression that Rosa Parks acted alone (and first), this book reveals her refusal to move as part of a long-standing tradition of social commitment, sacrifice, and protest that continues today.

Protesting with Rosa Parks is a chronological, chaptered account of many brave activists who fought against discrimination where Black and white passengers shared confined spaces in close proximity. Focusing on incidents in which someone was denied a seat and the subsequent result of that denial, Bollard illuminates an unbroken stream of protest that strives to guarantee everyone the right to ride on our collective journey towards equality.