March: Book Two (2015)

It’s been a while since I read the first volume of the late John Lewis’s graphic memoir, but the second volume is excellent. It takes us into the thick of the Civil Rights movement and doesn’t flinch from the horrors that activists braved during those years in the fight for equality.

In 1961, John Lewis is called from his studies and sit-in campaigns to take part in the Freedom Rides, a harrowing journey through the Deep South to test the strength of the recent Supreme Court decision banning segregation on interstate travel. Lewis and the other Freedom Riders are met with hostility and violence at every step, risking their lives and getting jailed multiple times throughout the course of the campaign. In part due to his involvement there, Lewis becomes a larger player within the movement and goes on to be the youngest speaker at the famous March on Washington, where behind-the-scenes drama over his speech plays out before he steps in front of the crowd.

Book One certainly didn’t shy away from the horrors and the danger of the Civil Rights movement, but there’s something really visceral about the depictions in Book Two. There are some haunting scenes, like when a store owner shuts a bunch of sit-in participants in his store and tries to gas them to death, or when one of the Freedom Ride buses is stopped on the road and swarmed by an angry mob. In a strange way, I’m reminded of the time Lewis cosplayed as his younger self at Comic-Con when the graphic memoirs were being released. Even though that’s such a wholesome incident to think about, it’s also a good reminder that Lewis didn’t need to cosplay as a superhero because he basically already was one. This book is intense and shows the terrorism that Lewis and other civil rights leaders experienced firsthand.

Another aspect of the book that I like is that it’s starting to show some of the divisions between the civil rights groups. Stokely Carmichael comes into play, and we see Lewis reprimanding SNCC members who don’t adhere to the group’s policy of nonviolence. Over the years, I’ve retaught myself to see and understand the perspective of civil rights advocates who believed in self-defense and acknowledged that, whether they fought or not, a war was already being waged against them. However, I also understand the personal decision to walk the path of nonviolence, and when the stakes of what these groups fought for were so high, I get why disagreements over strategy could lead to schisms.

We see some of those disagreements during the March on Washington as well, which is another really interesting part of the book. In addition to seeing the debate happening over Lewis’s speech, which some think goes too far in criticizing a recent bill and others think contains language that will alienate certain groups, it’s also just interesting to see that day from Lewis’s perspective. For him, a lot of that day is focused on this behind-the-scenes drama, and he takes care to highlight what gets taken out of his speech to appease other groups. Although, naturally, everything still comes to a stop when Martin Luther King, Jr. steps up to the podium. Considering that this is a speech that most Americans have heard (excerpts from) dozens of times, the book does a good job of recapturing the magic of hearing those words in that moment.

Warnings

Strong violence, language (including racial slurs,) and strong thematic elements.

March: Book One (2013)

A while ago, I picked up this book, the first in the late John Lewis’s three-part graphic memoir. Co-created with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell, Book One takes us through Lewis’s childhood into his early adulthood and his first involvement in organizing for civil rights.

On a cold January morning in 2009, Sen. John Lewis goes to the Capitol for Barack Obama’s inauguration. Before the ceremony begins, he meets two young boys and starts to tell them the story of his life. From his youthful sermons delivered in front of his “congregation” of chickens, to his experiences doing sit-ins with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he shares his story with the boys and, in turn, the story of America.

This is clearly a book that was written/drawn with an educational aim, and that’s all right. It’s wild that Lewis’s story and those of other Civil Rights leaders have been so rarely dramatized, given America’s penchant for projects based on true stories, so this one was certainly overdue. The framing device of Lewis talking to two kids about his life is handy – it takes us through the major historical/biographical events while still allowing for slice-of-life tangents or clarifying questions from the boys. Lewis lays out the history of his story as it happened, not shying away from the indignity, danger, and injustice but also emphasizing victories and flashes of hope within a long struggle. He includes lots of good details; I especially like the time he takes on the sit-in campaigns, all the planning, training, and strategic decisions that went into them.

The artwork is really effective – I like the stark contrast of the black-and-white, and the progression of the panels is often very cinematic. It draws you in further to what’s already an engrossing story, making its sights and sounds come alive in a way that feels very immediate for history. Between the way that Lewis tells the story and the way it’s drawn, I can easily picture the boys imagining themselves in Lewis’s shoes.

I’ve mentioned this before, especially in relation to other Civil-Rights-related media, but there can sometimes be a tendency to see historical figures as icons rather than people. Lewis’s very personal story defies that. Even when he talks about highly-admired/quasi-canonized figures of the movement, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it’s filtered through Lewis’s own perspective: a Civil Rights hero before he was a hero, just so happening to catch part of a speech from Dr. King on the radio and being bowled over by the force of this young Atlanta preacher’s words.

Also, because it needs to be said, we need to thank this book for a truly special moment. After it was written, Lewis went to Comic Con to promote it, and while there, he cosplayed as his younger self from the the March on Selma. And as if that wasn’t enough, he led a group of kids on a mini-march around the convention. How cool was John Lewis?

Warnings

Violence (including police brutality) and strong thematic elements.