Paperback, 121 pages
English language
Published May 9, 2014 by Top Shelf Productions.
March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.
Book One spans John Lewis’ youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a stunning climax on the steps of City Hall.
Many years ago, John Lewis and other student activists drew inspiration from the 1950s comic book "Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story." Now, his own comics bring those days to life for a new audience, testifying to a movement whose echoes will be heard for generations. --back flap
Incredibly tight storytelling. Superb pacing. Delightful grayscale inkwash art. And of course one of the greatest, most moving dramas of our generation. Of John Lewis’ life I’m reminded of Amitav Ghosh who said “Often reality exceeds fiction in its improbability”.
I am left astonished at the quality of this book and have summoned the rest of the series, hungry for more.
This delightfully produced graphic novel narrates the events in John Lewis's life that led him to fight for civil rights and then public service. Framed as a recounting of his life story to a family on the day of Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009, the 60-year-old story is firmly connected to present day. Further connections are evident in the illustrations, showing the heavy hand of law enforcement meting out biased justice. Learning what is possible via the approach of non-violent resistance is inspiring.
I needed to read this now. Right now, July 2020, while Nazi thugs kidnap and beat civilians in Portland and soon other cities, with war looming and despair so close at hand. I needed to read it because I'm furious, and these books stoked that anger, fueled it so hard I was gritting my teeth... but they did more than that: they taught me. Re-taught, perhaps, because it's something I already knew and know but just need reminding sometimes: nonviolence can work. Has worked. I feel humbled by Lewis and his cohort: what incredible, lovely people. What a beautifully narrated and illustrated story.
The story is great and really does feel like you're listening to a speaker. But it's the artwork and page design that really takes the cake. I can't get over how simple and yet absolutely stunning.
The 3 book series is an excellent history of the heros of Civil rights movement leading up to the March from Selma to Montgomery.
The graphic novel format is an excellent way to introduce history. A prose heavy book on the civil rights movement is not going to be everyone's cup of tea, yet an hour sat down with John Lewis's March will give you a basic introduction. The illustrations help to link the events with actual people, adding a more humanising element. I also liked hearing about John's childhood on the chicken farm and his attachment to the flock.
My only gripe is that I wish this was a single edition. It's been split into a trilogy (probably because it's easier to get people to pay a tenner three times than to cough up £30 for a single book) and it's not like it really has a conclusion. You are expected to read all three, which I am very likely to do, but I wanted to read it all in one go.
Total cliche, but I read this over the MLK Day long weekend, prompted in part by the President-Elect foolishly and thin-skinnedly attacking John Lewis. But I had been meaning to read this for a while...
Anyway, it's an important story well told. For me it filled in some gaps in knowledge (from across the pond our curriculum about this era pretty much stops at MLK and Malcolm X), and made a lot of the background feel more real. There's something about the pettiness of the colour line that's been really getting to me lately--all these things that would have been so easy for whites to concede and make black peoples' lives materially so much harder--and this book captures that well. It also humanises some of the key figures who I'm use to hearing discussed in a rather hagiographic way; of course John Lewis himself the most of all, and I …
Total cliche, but I read this over the MLK Day long weekend, prompted in part by the President-Elect foolishly and thin-skinnedly attacking John Lewis. But I had been meaning to read this for a while...
Anyway, it's an important story well told. For me it filled in some gaps in knowledge (from across the pond our curriculum about this era pretty much stops at MLK and Malcolm X), and made a lot of the background feel more real. There's something about the pettiness of the colour line that's been really getting to me lately--all these things that would have been so easy for whites to concede and make black peoples' lives materially so much harder--and this book captures that well. It also humanises some of the key figures who I'm use to hearing discussed in a rather hagiographic way; of course John Lewis himself the most of all, and I love the digression about him preaching to the chickens.
Saw John Lewis at Powell's Books, and picked up a signed copy. He didn't do a reading -- he gave a speech, and it was a splendid one! The book is a collaboration with the very talented Nate Powell, and so it's no surprise that it succeeds as a very well done graphic book. Interesting history and a moving story. Highly recommended.
