Summary: First in a trilogy of autobiographical graphic novels on Civil Rights leader John Lewis.
I have mentioned before that I subscribe to Christ and Pop Culture Magazine. The primary illustrator there (he also works with Christianity Today and other organizations) has an comic book review site. Because of his advocacy for comics and graphics novels I have picked up several well reviewed graphic novels. This week will be graphic novel week at Bookwi.se.
March has been on my radar for a while, but I picked it up on Friday because it was (and is as of posting) for $4 on Kindle. I read it in a sitting and immediately purchased the whole trilogy on paper to give to a friend.
John Lewis was a Civil Rights leader, chairman of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council, one of the original Freedom Riders, one of the organizers of the 1963 March on Washington and more. In 1986 he was elected to Congress and continues to serve as Georgia 5th Congressional District Representative.
March book one tells the early history of John Lewis growing up, going to college, meeting Martin Luther King Jr and the Nashville Lunch counter sit in. I am a fan of Nate Powell‘s art (most of the graphic novels I read this week were by Nate Powell). But some of the lettering gets a little bit small in the paperback version (or it needs to be enlarged to read on kindle.) With that one minor complaint, this is an excellent book and I will soon finish reading the next two books in the trilogy.
I do think reading about the Civil Rights movement in 1950-1970s is an important reminder for our current Civil Rights movement. March is a good reminder about how far attitudes and legal status of a range of minority citizens have changed and how recent the Civil Rights era really was. But I am always struck when I read about the Civil Rights era, how important the church was to organizing the Civil Rights movement and little support the White church, and White citizens in general, gave to it.
I think there can be a problem with only reading Civil Rights history and not other books by and about African Americans. But as part of the movement to diversify our reading, a variety of approaches to civil rights history is important.
(joint review of Books 2 and 3)
March Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition
