From Selma to the White House
Rep. John Lewis kept his eyes on the prize
On paper, as the saying goes, and sans illustrations, even the most straightforward accounting of the life of U.S. Rep. John Lewis, DGa., would be remarkably impressive. A seminal figure of the 1960s civil rights movement, he put his life on the line time and again to advance the cause of equal rights for black Americans. However, when the prose on that paper is taken directly from Mr. Lewis’ own powerful firsthand testimony and coupled with emotionally immersive artwork, a wonderful alchemy takes place. The reader is posited in the middle of a living history as relevant today as it was more than half a century ago.
The three-part graphic novel series “March” by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell (Top Shelf Productions, $19.99) depicts the remarkable life of John Lewis, son of sharecroppers from rural Alabama. Across the first two installments, Mr. Lewis’ youthful hunger for education blossoms into a passion to participate in, and ultimately help lead, the struggle for equal rights in the deep Southern states. Using Mr. Lewis’ voice to intimately guide the reader through an intricate narrative, co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell weave a rich tapestry of our history. Through Mr. Lewis’ recollections we learn the stories of Brown v. Board of Education, Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X and numerous others.
At 23 years old, Mr. Lewis had become a veteran of dozens of arrests and beatings incurred while testing the boundaries of the federal government’s anti-segregation laws. As the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), he joined such figures as Martin Luther King Jr. and A. Phillip Randolph
The August Wilson Center, Downtown, will host a conversation with Rep. Lewis from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday to open the ToonSeum’s exhibit “From MLK to March: Civil Rights in Comics and Cartoons.” It is free and open to the public. At 7 p.m. Saturday there will be a reception, lecture and book signing at Sewickley Academy. Tickets $50; 412741-4405 or SweetwaterArtCenter.org. as one of “The Big Six” civil rights leaders who were pivotal in organizing the 1963 March on Washington. Throughout every installment, events are depicted with the motif of ringing telephones, essentially signaling the protagonists answering the call of history.
The series’ final act unfolds in the recently released “Book Three,” which begins Sept. 15, 1963, at the exact same moment shown during the opening scenes of the movie “Selma.” The deadly bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., alerted the nation to the dangers blacks in the South faced on a scale that could no longer be ignored. Already acquainted with these dangers, Mr. Lewis joined the front lines to draw further public attention to the need for federal intervention.
“March” utilizes a canny narrative structure, with the bulk of the story told in flashbacks, framed against a modern-day Lewis attending Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration in January 2009. As the narrator describes in plain language, the past indignities he and his fellow activists endured, Mr. Aydin and Mr. Powell juxtapose those wince-inducing moments against the pageantry of the present-day ceremony. It’s a smart and effective choice. By the third volume, when the seasoned congressman finally comes face-to-face with the first elected African-American commander in chief, the extent of Mr. Lewis’ journey moves him to tears. The moment will most certainly do the same to many readers.
“March: Book Three” is larger and more epic than its preceding chapters, and laid out in a more formal manner by the storytellers. Mr. Aydin has worked previously with Mr. Lewis as both his communications director and press secretary and currently as his digital director and policy adviser. The closeness of their professional relationship likely accounts for the ease of the scripted dialogue as they navigate more obligatory exposition throughout the last act. Mr. Powell’s artwork and lettering fits their script with assurance. He isn’t a natural likeness artist and because of the sheer number of characters represented, sometimes this is confusing, especially early on but his compositions and pacing are consistently stirring.
Is “March” perfect? If not, it’s hard to find fault with its poise and amazing grace. Mr. Aydin and Mr. Powell together explain how the activist who once sat in to desegregate lunch counters in Alabama evolved into the representative who just this year led a sit-in on the floor of Congress advocating for stricter gun control laws. Mr. Lewis’ story was and remains that of America’s need for evolution as expressed through revolution. It’s also a wake-up call that change happens slowly, and the biggest steps toward achieving dreams aren’t made in a race. They occur when we march.