The "March" trilogy by John Lewis, Andrew Aidyn, and Nate Powell

In a similar way to “Maus”, this is a story that is hard to process, but that surely needs to be told.  It’s the right level of informational content and captivating storytelling.

The authors, Lewis, Aidyn, and Powell do an impeccable job at keeping the story of the civil rights movement accurate. However, in order to make it more relatable to the reader, it’s Lewis’ journey through his beginning in the civil rights movement that the reader follows. At first I thought it was a biographical novel about John Lewis, but the more I kept reading, the more I see he’s more of a guide to the reader to understand the movement from a more personal perspective. It is through his eyes and his own experiences that we see the development of the marches. It makes it more engaging through the eyes of someone like John, rather than just tell the facts one by one in a historical, textbook manner. Throughout the trilogy, the reader gets to learn about him growing up in a farm in Alabama (including his love for chickens), to his rising interest for civil rights, and to the beginning of the marches. 

The story is loyal to illustrating every march that Lewis was involved in since their beginning in 1960. I must say that at some point, throughout the carrying of the three books, it does feel as a lot of exposition is thrown at the reader at times. It’s as if some of these scenes could’ve just been mentioned, rather than show every single march that happened in the span of 3 years. But that exact thing is the beauty of these graphic novels. I admire how dedicated the authors were to telling the journey of the civil rights movement from beginning to end. Making sure that as many of the people that were part of it were able to be heard and remembered for their sacrifices. 

The artwork done by Nate Powelll is so beautiful and incredibly detailed when it comes to every person’s features. He took as much research as possible to get the historical figures’ image to be as realistic as possible without making them look like a photograph. Powell also didn’t step back from showing the dark sides of the marches, which is pretty much the majority of it. He illustrated as many punches, as many kicks, as many heart-wrenching scenes of discrimination to prove their point and I find that very memorable. He was given the job based on his former true-to-life works, but nothing could compare to what he did for this trilogy. 

I'm happy the format of the graphic novel was used to tell these stories. It makes me even more happy to know it was Lewis’ idea, too. He was inspired to tell his story in a comic-book format because he had read one about Martin Luther King when he was younger. Titled “Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story”. He mentioned how through the use of comics, the story would be able to get to younger audiences faster, and that he wanted to do the exact same thing based on his experience as a young comic reader. Once again proving that graphic novels could be an extensive, artistic medium of information.

One of my favorite narrative elements that I loved was the back-and-forth from the marches in the early 60s to when Obama was elected president in 2009. It’s a beautiful reminder of how, through the hardships of the movement and through the suffering of many people like Lewis, they have been able to give a more prosperous future for African-americans to come.

I just saw that the trilogy is going to have a sequel! It’s going to be told by Lewis just like before, but this time it will be illustrated by African-Native American illustrator Afue Richardson. It’s going to deal with the events that happened after the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I’m very interested in reading it and, having now read historical books of this sort, I think I’ll  be more open to the idea of non-fiction books from this moment on. It’s books like these that help open a bigger conversation about our humanity, representation, and sense of equality. How it’s people like Lewis and Dr. Martin Luther King that fought so hard so that other people were able to accomplish their goals. It’s a beautiful reminder and the least we can do to thank them is to read their stories. Let their voices be heard and never forgotten.