I spent the afternoon on the couch reading March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell. It's a comic book trilogy that is the story of the Civil Right Movement through Congressman Lewis' eyes.

While I'm reading very little current news right now, I am reading a lot of American history. I'm in a Civil Rights phase that started with Devil in the Grove. I'm sure some of my recent work with Defy Ventures had caused me to dig in deeper into this segment of American history. I know that my reaction to the recent election is reinforcing this.

I was born in December 1965 so the Voting Rights Act had already passed. While I was born in Arkansas I grew up in Dallas, Texas so I was somewhat disconnected from the dynamics of race in the deep south and instead got to experience a different dimension of it since there is generally a Texas version of most things.

I've always been confused by the labels Hispanic and Latino and, after living in Boston from 1983 - 1994 and getting a dose of a totally different version of race dynamics than I'd had in Dallas, I realized my upbringing in fashionable far North Dallas was a comfortably privileged one.

Reading a book like March in 2016 helps me realize how far we've come as a country, but at the same time reminds me how much more we can and need to do.

March is a fantastic book about the history of the Civil Rights movement and revolves around John Lewis's work with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). It covers everything from the diner sit-ins of the early 1960's, to the bus Freedom Riders and of course the Selma/Montgomery march. I was a little concerned that a graphic novel would make the history feel cartoony but it really didn't. If anything it made the history seem more real because it didn't pull any punches. I would say this trilogy of books should be required reading for any kid 8th grade on up. Of course it would probably get banned (if it isn't already) because of its liberal use of the "N" word, swearing and difficult subject matter. But that's exactly why young teens should read it. It may make you uncomfortable but sometimes history is that way.
FYI, If I were in charge I would also require "Maus" by Art Spiegleman and "They Called Us Enemy" by George Takei.

I’ll admit I knew next to nothing about John Lewis before this. The first I had heard of him was the sit-in he co-led in The House in 2016 trying to get a vote for stricter background checks for guns. I knew that he was part of the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s but I didn’t realize how big a part he had been.

The story is told in the background of the Obama Inauguration and in doing so made me realize how big a moment that election really was. I’m not so removed from reality to realize that in a country steeped in racism, electing a black president was a big, nay, huge deal, but I hadn’t realized how big until this book. I will never be able to fully empathize with what black people went through, the institutionalized degradation, the socially accepted violence, the unwarranted humiliation, not as a white man. But to see people like Mr. Lewis suffer brutal violence because they had the unmitigated gall to want be served lunch or because they had the self-righteous audacity to want vote gives me a greater appreciation of their mental fortitude. What’s more is that the organization in which Mr. Lewis gained a reputation was called the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. I’m a pacifist and not a little afraid of confrontation but those are logical reactions. Being spit on or being locked in a restaurant with the fumigators running would surely cause me to react emotionally and that emotion would be rage.

Yet Mr. Lewis and his fellow protestors endured this and so much more without resorting to violence themselves. And when the pressure got to the Federal Government and they finally put the wheels in motion to pass the Civil Rights Act, they asked that the marches and protests stop because they wanted to give those poor racists in The South a chance to cool down. They refused the cry for patience. As well they should have. They had suffered centuries of oppression and had seen Jim Crow surface in the wake of being freed from slavery. They would only stop when they got that for which they marched.

I really cannot speak highly enough about this book. Many and varied are the accounts of The Civil Rights Movement. There is no wrong answer to the question: which should I read? For me, this one brought me to the edge (and beyond) of tears time after time. And in the wake of the election of Mr. Trump, the vitriol is rising again. I’m not ashamed to admit, I’m scared for the direction of this country. Reading about Martin Luther King in school, it seemed like his fight was over and won. But having heard that late great reverend’s holiday referred to as Black People Day, I know the battle rages still. Books like this, I take as a message of hope. We have come far since lynchings were part of everyday life but we still have more of the road to equality to travel. Seeing that it’s possible to protest yet not resort to violence, while at the same time proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are not weak, gives me hope.

So good. Some text is difficult to read due to tiny handwritten font but a great way for certain audiences to learn this history as told by someone who was there.

John Lewis was incredible and the work he did for the American people was even more incredible. This book really shows his life and work during the civil rights movement of the 60's. The story is very well put together the art is incredible and often very powerful.

I think the medium is really great at showing the emotion and the trauma of the events it shows.

I had heard most all of the story before but seeing that time through Rep. Lewis' lens was interesting. I also liked seeing the dynamics of all of the different pieces of the movement working with and sometimes against each other.

An epic, cinematic telling of John Lewis' extraordinary contributions to the civil rights movement. A broad but moving telling that should be required school reading.

I really appreciate the ability of these books, as graphic novels, to give such a sweeping overview of the 1960’s civil rights movement in such a short amount of reading time. I learned a great deal, and I especially appreciated the capturing of the tensions between the approaches of different major players.

Over the last year, I’ve become increasingly aware how impossible it is, while living in the midst of history being made, to be sure one is making the right decision. That very point is brought out as we watch SNCC, SCLC, the NAACP, and others argue about which tactics are wise at various junctures.

I also hardly knew anything about John Lewis until his death, a major omission in my learning. As someone who believes deeply in nonviolent resistance in the model of Jesus Christ, I find him to be an incredibly compelling role model, and I look forward to reading more by and about him.

My only complaint about these books is that the illustrator’s style left me confused about what happened on perhaps a dozen occasions. Not that a little internet research is a terrible thing, but I think it should not be necessary to determine how a given event occurred. The choice to blur words and obfuscate some pictures may have been made intentionally and on artistic grounds, but I wish it wasn’t.

Amazing

Should be required reading for every American for so many reasons.