Civil rights activist Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. On December 1, 1955 she refused to obey a bus driver's order to give up her seat  to a white passenger, setting off the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This became one of the defining moments of the Civil Rights Movement leading to nationwide efforts to end segregation of public facilities. She eventually moved to Detroit where she lived until her death in 2005.

Today we honor the life of Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader who would have turned 84 this year. A federal holiday to honor King, who was assassinated in April 1968, was first observed in 1986. Congress also designated it a national day of service in 1994.

Books

April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.'s death and transformation of America by Michael Eric Dyson

At Canaan's edge: America in the King years 1965-68 by Taylor Branch

If you have read Kevin Boyle's Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, the 2011-2012 Great Michigan Read try David Halberstram or Branch Taylor or one of the many documentaries about Civil Rights in America produced over the years.

Faith in the city: preaching radical social change in Detroit by Angela D. Dillard; with a foreword by Charles G. Adams

Race and remembrance: a memoir by Arthur L. Johnson

Note: We meet the third Wednesday, November 16, this month.

The Canton Seniors Book Discussion group will meet one week earlier this month on Wednesday, November 16 from 2:00-3:00 PM in Canton Public Library's Group Study Room A. Copies of The Help will be distributed at the October 26th book discussion. After October 26 ask for a copy of The Help at the Adult Reference Desk.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett — Three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever change a town and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another.

Check out Canton Public Library’s Book Club in a Bag selections:

The help [kit] by Kathryn Stockett

Little Bee [kit] by Chris Cleave

The postmistress [kit] by Sarah Blake