Women were on the front lines of the civil rights movement — everyone knows how Rosa Parks sat down on that bus. And yet, their roles as leaders and organizers have been less visible. Newspaper headlines at the time identified Parks as a seamstress, as if she were a mere bystander who just got fed up that day. In fact, she had been an organizer in the movement long before her act of defiance. Like Parks, many women at the time were deeply engaged in on-the-ground organizing, but not recognized as leaders by the movement or by history.
