The Civil Rights Legend Who’s Inspiring a New Generation With Comic Books

[demmiblue]

Source: Wired

Congressman John Lewis has a dramatic life story: Born the son of Alabama sharecroppers, he joined the Civil Rights Movement, became one of the original Freedom Riders, marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma and spoke at the 1963 March on Washington before King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Now, the last living member of the legendary Big Six civil rights leaders is sharing his story with the next generation through a trilogy of graphic novels titled March.

Comics have played an important role in communicating the message of the Civil Rights Movement to young people before—including Lewis himself. When he was 18, Lewis read a comic book titled Martin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery Story published by the civil rights group Fellowship for Reconciliation, something that he says changed his life. The comic was not only a biography of King, but a blueprint for putting his principles of direct action and nonviolence into practice.

The events of March, the second volume of which is out today, feel particularly resonant in the midst of the ongoing national conversation about race and police brutality inspired by the deaths of numerous unarmed black men at the hands of law enforcement, as well as the militaristic response to the protests inspired by them. Lewis hopes that young people—especially young people inspired to activism by these events—will read his books to educate themselves about the history of the Civil Rights Movement and the non-violent principles that guided them.

“We were committed to the philosophy of nonviolence, even in the face of angry mobs during the Freedom Rides in Montgomery, Alabama at the Greyhound bus stations,” says Lewis. “We never struck back. We were willing to suffer the beatings, to be arrested, to go to jail for what we believed in. I’m hopeful that young people who are thinking about what happened in Ferguson and New York can see another generation that acted in a peaceful, non-violent fashion and never gave up.”

Read more: http://www.wired.com/2015/01/john-lewis-march-comic/

[JustAnotherGen]

1. John Lewis is one of those people

That whenever I see him I smile.

I think he's using a good approach!

[misterhighwasted]

2. I adore this dedicated man

Lewis is one of few honorable men left in DC

[Gothmog]

3. I have a copy of March Book One signed by Congressman Lewis

[Gothmog]

4. I waited almost two hours to get three signed copies of March 2

They ran out of copies of March 1 but I have one signed copy of that book