March: Books 1-3

The first volume of [book:March: Book One|17346698] begins with the Inauguration Day of President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009. Congressman John Lewis is getting ready to attend the Inauguration when a woman with her two young sons comes into his office to visit. The story of "March" is told through Mr. Lewis's conversation with these two young boys, as well as his thoughts on Inauguration Day.

I loved this story! I was looking for a book to hold my attention (it's been hard to focus and nothing I was reading was doing it for me), and this did the job, and more! It engaged my emotions, my sense of history, and my need to just hear a really good, edge-of-the-seat story. It's supposedly a young adult comic book series, but it appealed show more to me, just because I had never heard a first-person narrative of the Civil Rights Movement told in such a way: from the beginning of the movement, to the Inauguration of the first African-American President of the United States.

If you made the mistake of thinking Mr. John Lewis was just some silly old man who took it into his head to sit down on the floor of the House of Representatives for some silly protest against gun violence, you seriously need to reconsider his role in history, and reading this book, and the whole trilogy of "March," is a good place to begin. Keep in mind that we ignore history at our peril. show less

Graphic Novel Book Club, April 2017

I read all three volumes together for the last book club meeting and so all of these reviews are going to end up going together.

Like many people I felt the need to get this book into my hands and the hands of those reading with me as soon as our president decided to slander the wrong congressmen for not understanding how the world worked, or having done enough for it. What I didn't know going into this book, I feel is printed on my heart coming out of it.

I felt so deeply moved and charged by this book. I felt the use of gorgeous color covers of such wam colors but deeply rooted images and messages of the time worked amazingly against the stark, straight to the point black and white of the interior show more pages. I love the inclusion of it being a story to children, and a leadup to the meeting with Obama, and how it ended with the idea for making these books.

The story between the beginning and ending frames is one to break the heart and make the soul of America, marked in blood and bloodied courage. I felt weak, ashamed, proud, angry, and sorrowful in so many different places. I felt so glad that these books had sold out twice on Amazon from so many people wanting to educate themselves, and I feel like I've been changed in ways beyond words for adding it to my/our ongoing and current fight. show less

17. March (Trilogy) by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell
published: Book One 2013, Book Two 2015, Book Three 2016
format: 560 pages over three paperback books
acquired: in March
read: Apr 15-18
rating: *****

John Lewis was one of the big six nonviolent civil rights leaders in the 1960's. He was by far the youngest, only in his early 20's when he became the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC. But on March 7, 1965, he ended up, without the SNCC, leading the march from Selma, Alabama to the state capital that provoked Bloody Sunday. Just outside Selma, on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Alabama state police waited and then attacked the marchers with billy clubs in front of TV cameras. They were so show more brutal that Lewis ended up with a cracked skull. Public outrage over the event gave Lyndon Johnson the necessary momentum to push through the Voting Rights Act. Lewis did a lot of things, but literally getting his head cracked that day would be his most important.

Recommended because it's well done, and an amazing and moving story, and because we forget how deep the blind racism in the country was, and, apparently still is. And because of the insight into other civil rights leaders and some of the other leaders of the era. I think what struck me was how alone Lewis was, especially the night he was attacked and later was left by himself in a hospital bed, overnight, in pain. He would give an important speech the next day.

2017
https://www.librarything.com/topic/244568#6017239 show less

John Lewis's story is powerful no matter how it's told, whether in person (as I had the privilege of first hearing it), written long-form in his memoirs for adult audiences, or written more simply in this graphic form for younger audiences.

Setting his story within the frame of the day of Barack Obama's inauguration is such a powerful counterpoint that it gave me the shivers. Thinking about his story in terms of what's happening in this country now makes me want to cry.

Perhaps President Trump should have read theses graphic novels before criticizing John Lewis. The three books tell his harrowing story of standing up for black civil rights in the 1960s along side King and Malcolm X. He endures incredible abuse to fight segregation and to clear obstacles to black voter registration.

His story is wrapped around his 2009 attendance to the inauguration of President Obama. Poignantly, it shows how far we have come as a country, overcoming institutional racism to elect a black president.

Sadly, it's a reminder of how we are now slipping backwards.

Wow. This graphic novel by John Lewis is an epic piece of history. It begins on President Obama's inaguaration day in 2009. John Lewis is in his office when a woman and her two sons knock on the door. They are in DC from Atlanta for the inaguaration and she wanted to show her boys a piece of history. John Lewis begins to tell them his story and the novel then shifts to his childhood, where he grew up on a small farm Alabama. The trilogy takes us through Lewis's life and the civil rights movement. It's a powerful book.

Read these books. Just read them. John Lewis' story is brilliantly portrayed here in graphic novel form, which I think proves very effective for the purpose.