ENG221RW

Assignment 1b
Changxin (Elaine) Zhang

You can take my freedom but you cant take my dignity

(March: Book One, 2013, John Lewis, 14- 15). In searching for human
dignity, John Lewis tells his stories and the Civil Rights Movement
using first-person narrative in his books, March: Book One written in
2013 and March: Book Two written in 2015. Growing up in the Deep
South, John Lewis, as well as many other African-Americans, suffered
from discrimination and segregation. As depicted in the books, he
joined several movements in his life, including the Nashville Student
Movement and the Freedom Ride, both of which play significant
roles throughout the African-American Civil Rights history, and thus
he became a key figure in the movement.
First and foremost, convincing the government and the public
the idea that people of different skin colors should be treated equal
was not easy for the activists in the early 1960s. The members from
various groups implemented nonviolence at first. In Book One,
members of the Fellowship of Reconciliation started a workshop to
prepare themselves for the curses, abuses and indignities that the
African-Americans would be facing in real life. They gathered,
trained and played the roles of protestors and instigators. The
workshop taught them the philosophy of nonviolence by first seeing
and testing their responses under the stress from verbal and

physical abuse (80).

John Lewis and his fellow activists in the workshop started The
Nashville Student Movement. On their path to freedom and dignity,
they encountered a lot of trouble. They found that, as they were
trying to enter deeper into the heart of segregated society, their
nonviolent actions caused a series of violent responses. For
example, in Book Two, after being rejected from buying tickets at
the movie theater box office, the Nashville Student Movement riders
got back into the line, waited for another turn, and asked to buy
tickets again. Yet, not only the white teenagers, but also the police
interfered with their protest, stopping them from waiting in the line
and threatening to arrest them (11).
John Lewis then joined the Freedom Riders, a group of
volunteers recruited by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), after
being

showed

an

ad

in

Student

Nonviolent

Coordinating

Committee (SNCC) publication. The strategy of the Freedom Riders

is nonviolence as well. As depicted in Book Two, even though their
nonviolence strategy was met with violence, they still maintained
the philosophy of nonviolence. A persuasive example of the hostility
the student activists faced comes from Book Two: when some of the
activists, who went to dine in a restaurant, refused to leave a
restaurant because they werent served, the staff left them there
and fumigated the place. Almost killed by the fumigation, they
questioned the servers who refused to serve colored customers and
fumigated the restaurant: Were we not human...? (14-15).

However, when they were treated not even as human, but like pests
that the fumigators are used to kill, they still didnt take violent
actions to fight back. Instead of fighting fire with fire, they stuck to
their belief in nonviolence.
In his books, John Lewis portrays the path to change in graphics,
which makes his memoirs special. A lot of close-ups are used in the
two books and help show how the characters are feeling. For
instance, when John Lewis and his uncle were driving up north and
crossing through Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky, we can see
their anxiety and even the sweat on their faces. However, as soon
as they finally arrived in Ohio, their facial expressions changed
subtly and we can tell that theyre relieved (Book One, 38- 41).
Therefore, the books show us how the characters feel not only by
texts and dialogues, but also by graphs.
As for the language, John Lewis uses narrations, dialogues and
even action words to more vividly portray the scenes. For example,
when the Freedom Riders tried to resume the Freedom Rides at the
bus station in Montgomery, they caused violence. During the fights,
a lot of action words, such as smash, krunch, stomp and
whap, were used to show how violent the riot was (Book Two, 7378). I think this is an important characteristic and strength not only
in John Lewis books, but also in other graphic novels.
After reading the two books, I believe that the most important
step to enforce changes in political and popular opinion is to firmly
hold onto a belief in peace and nonviolence, and to never give up.

For example, the Freedom Riders still marched in toward their goal
of nonviolence and accepted the arrest, despite knowing that the
people who had arrived the bus station before had been taken to jail
(Book Two, 93). John Lewis also decided to march, despite all the
worries,

concerns

and

warnings

of

increasingly

serious

and

dangerous violence. He was called a sinner by his fellow Freedom

Riders and arrested by the police, but he still headed to the Deep
South and led the protest (Book Two, 22- 23). Besides, they met a
great number of difficulties before eventually resuming the Freedom
Rides. For instance, the Greyhound bus carrying Freedom Riders was
firebombed (Book Two, 44- 46). Whats more, the fight at the bus
station was also a huge obstacle when they tried to resume the
movement (Book Two, 73- 79). They even had a mattress war with
the police in the jail: they kept singing songs of freedom. The police
couldnt stand them, took their mattresses and toothbrushes and
poured water on them (Book Two, 103- 107). The Freedom Riders
firmly believed that the law was wrong and that they therefore must
resist it. Meanwhile they accepted the penalty (Book Two, 95). It was
extremely dehumanizing in the jail that the Freedom Rider activists
were even asked to take off all their clothes and shave all of their
facial hair (Book Two, 102). But they never lost their faith in love,
peace and nonviolence. To them, nonviolence is a philosophy and a
way of life.
In addition, making the Freedom Ride Movement national is also
essential for its success. Although the process was strenuous, the

Freedom Riders raised the national awareness and awoke the

hearts and minds of a generation (Book Two, 109). I believe that
this was a turning point of the Movement because it allowed
everyone in the nation to get to know the Movement and to join it,
leading to the success of the Civil Rights Movement.
Last but not least, to make the campaign successful, the
Freedom Riders made it political and shifted the focus of the
movement toward registering African-Americans in the South to
vote. This made the movement more concrete and achievable by
letting them express their political voice and allowing them to elect
the leaders who would legislate in their favor (113). I believe this
was a huge step forward in the Civil Rights Movement.
In conclusion, John Lewis tells his experience during the Civil
Rights Movement the first-person perspective in graphic novels.
From the broad picture he depicts in his books, the readers can tell
the hardship the African-Americans had during their fight for justice
and equality. The various groups used the tactic of nonviolence.
Although they received violent responses from the public, they still
stuck to their belief in peace, love and nonviolence and eventually
persuaded the politicians and the public. Besides, I learned from the
books that, holding onto the belief, trusting the fellow activists and
making the movement national are the key steps to enforce
changes in political and popular opinion.

Works Cited List

Lewis, John, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell. March: Book One.
Marietta: Chris Staros and Brett Warnock, 2013. Print.
Lewis, John, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell. March: Book Two.
Marietta: Chris Staros and Brett Warnock, 2015. Print.

Reflection
John Lewis used graphic novels to tell his stories as well as the
Civil Rights Movement, which, as I have mentioned in the essay,
makes his memoir special and standout among other ordinary
history novels or textbooks. I especially like the way that he
presents the characters and the scenes in a large number of details,
close-ups and sound words, both of which make the movements
more vivid and understandable. For example, when John Lewis and
his uncle were driving all the way up north, their sweat and facial
expressions were so impressive to me that I tend to mention it every
time I talk about the books with my friends.
When I was reading the two books, they definitely affected my
perception of the Civil Rights Movement. As a Chinese citizen living
in an all-Chinese community all my life, I have never encountered
any discrimination just based on my skin color. Therefore, I couldnt
really understand how many struggles the African-Americans have
had on their path to equality and justice, and how they feel when
they face discrimination and segregation. However, the books
present their feelings to me using a great number of pictures. They

also reveal how violent the actions were by the usage of action
words. For example, during the fights, a lot of action words, such as
smash, krunch, stomp and whap, were used to show how
riotous and violent the fight was.
As an international student and non-native English speaker, I
absolutely love reading graphic novels, such as the March books
used in this class, to learn about US history. This is not only because
there arent too many texts to read, but also because the graphic
novels increase my interest in continuing to read. I believe that if
Im interested, I will put more effort in learning about the events and
history. Reading long texts of usual and ordinary history books can
be tedious since I almost didnt have any background knowledge of
US history, such as the Civil Rights Movement. But graphic novels,
on the other hand, present the stories and history in a more
entertaining way when compared to the normal books in texts.

Introduction: 16/20
Grammar,
Content: 23/25
Organization: 17/20
Reflection: 10/10
94/100

Language:

23/25