You've heard of Rosa Parks—but do you actually know the full story? This week, we dig into the brutal history of segregation in the United States, the difficult work of activism, and the way black civil rights leaders' stories are often taught as part of a whitewashed narrative that minimizes their agency and fails to engage with their actual political views.

CONTENT NOTE: A lot of the advocacy work that Rosa Parks and other activists we discuss in this episode took on involves attempting to get justice for acts of extreme violence, including sexual violence, against black Americans. We don't go into any graphic details but even a dry recounting of the facts may be disturbing.

Show notes and sources at this link

Feel like donating to a good cause after listening to this episode? Here are some charities we recommend:

• The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute
• Black Lives Matter
• The Anti-Racism Fund
• NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
• Amistad Law Project
• The Marshall Project
• Unicorn Riot
• Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting
• Black Voters Matter
• The Collective Political Action Committee