Introduction from previous edition

Many a major social and political change has started with one person deciding to assert themselves.

Throughout history, men and women have stood up to express what they would or wouldn’t accept, and how they wanted themselves and others to be treated. They did not let a fear of conflict silence them and were prepared to take the consequences of their actions.

On 1 December 1955, 42-year-old Rosa Parks decided to take a seat reserved only for white people, on a bus in Alabama. She refused the driver’s demand to give up her seat for a white passenger. Her action (preceded by a similar refusal from 15-year-old Claudette Colvin) prompted the Montgomery bus boycott and ended segregation between white people and ...

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