H. H. Leonards signing Rosa Parks Beyond the Bus: Life, Lessons, and Leadership

Sunday, March 19 at 5pm ET 

Location: Joseph-Beth Cincinnati 

Join us for H. H. Leonards signing Rosa Parks Beyond the Bus: Life, Lessons, and Leadership. 

Rosa Parks Beyond the Bus: Life, Lessons, and Leadership is a collection of inspiring and instructive memories compiled from the decade that Mrs. Parks was a guest in author H. H. Leonard’s Washington, DC home. During those years, Mrs. Leonards was able to know the heart, mind, and spirit of the woman who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus on December 1, 1955. The author shares her remembrances, both delightful and somber, in a way that offers readers an intimate and personal glimpse into the personhood of Mrs. Parks. Mrs. Parks is a seminal point in the history of civil, human, and women’s rights. Her story, as told through the eyes of H. H. Leonards, also touches on the journey of African-American women who have somehow managed to survive a system that cared little about the indignities they suffered―from discrimination to sexual assault. While many of her contemporaries attempted to define her as the woman who refused to give up her seat on the bus, she was more than the sum of one pivotal decision. She was decidedly multi-dimensional. Rosa Parks Beyond the Bus is a personal look into Mrs. Parks’ life, her thoughts, her beliefs, and her immense wisdom that moved people― from world leaders Nelson Mandela, Deepak Chopra, and Pope John Paul II to the smallest of children―to seek and revere her presence.

H. H. Leonards is a wife, mother of three, and founder of O Museum in The Mansion in Washington, DC, where Mrs. Rosa Parks, her friends, and business associates lived with her, at no cost, as part of The Mansion and O Museum’s Heroes-In-Residence Program.

O Museum in The Mansion was established February 14, 1980 to provide a safe haven and sanctuary where guests learn from one another and foster the development of diversity, the creative process and the human spirit. The building is a Historic 20th Century Civil Rights Site on The African American Heritage Trail.

A staunch advocate of social justice through music and storytelling, she is Co-Founder of 51StepsToFreedom.org, a non-profit organization that is developing a city-wide trail that traces America’s struggle for equality and freedom.