March: Book Two

CORE is the civil rights group who organizes and implements the Freedom Rides. In the first half of 1961, Lewis sees their advertisement in a newspaper soliciting volunteers for the Freedom Rides and feels the “spirit of history at work” (30). Lewis applies to join the CORE for the Rides and is accepted. CORE is led by James Farmer, and during the timespan of this graphic novel they advocate for nonviolent resistance. They work closely with other organizations such as the SNCC and the SCLC.

The Freedom Rides are proposed by the CORE and supported by organizing efforts from other civil rights organizations, like the Nashville Student Movement, the SCLC, and the SNCC. The intention of the Rides was to test the enforcement, or lack thereof, of desegregation after the Boynton decision. Freedom Riders were both Black and white. They were committed to nonviolence and composed wills before their journeys, aware that this action could result in their deaths. These mixed-race groups bought bus tickets into the Deep South. Violence, bombings, beatings, arrests, and more were visited upon the Riders from both civilians and southern governments and law enforcement that wanted to uphold racism, Jim Crow, and white supremacy. The Nature of Media and Public Perception surrounding the Rides did much to win the support of politicians like the Kennedy brothers, as well as wider public support.

Lewis becomes involved with the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in his capacity as SNCC Chairperson. He is part of an organizing group called the “Big Six” along with A. Philip Randolph, Dr. King, Roy Wilkins, Jim Farmer, and Whitney Young. These leaders represent different organizing groups, and they have different approaches to the March. The SNCC for instance, is skeptical of the March because of the leadership’s cooperation with the federal government, and Lewis’s speech on behalf of the SNCC gets considerably altered by other leaders like A. Philip Randolph, who think his strong language compromises their progress.

The March is held and televised on August 28th, 1963. Famous singers such as Mahalia Jackson, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Peter, Paul, and Mary perform. Lewis is a featured speaker and Dr. King makes his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. Male leaders of the March meet with President Kennedy to discuss their cause afterward.

The Nashville Student Movement is the first civil rights organization Lewis becomes involved in, and it’s where he meets figures like James Lawson and Diane Nash. The efforts of the Nashville Student Movement make Nashville into a civil rights hotspot. In March: Book One, the students are the primary organizers of the lunch counter sit-ins, which are successful. As March: Book Two begins, Lewis considers the members of the Nashville Student Movement to be his primary family. 

They continue similar campaigns at fast food restaurants and movie theatres. The students demonstrate The Power of Collective Action and Community Organizing, as campuses in other states learn of their successful tactics and begin to mimic them, and vice versa. Many of the SNCC leaders committed to nonviolence that Lewis admires, like Nash, James Bevel, and Bernard Lafayette, originated in the Nashville Student Movement. The organization was also integral in providing leadership for the Freedom Rides.

Mississippi State Penitentiary is better known as Parchman Farm. In 1961, Lewis is arrested in Jackson, Mississippi during the Freedom Rides. As the Rides continue and more people are arrested, Jackson City Hall’s cells grow overcrowded, and Lewis and others are sent to Parchman Farm. Lewis calls it a “dark legend” due to the violence and abuse visited upon the incarcerated people there. They are forced to work in chain gangs, which Lewis calls “human bondage” (99). The Freedom Riders incarcerated at Parchman Farm are subject to constant intimidation and dehumanization in “an effort to strip away [their] dignity” (102). Prison guards and wardens threaten them, strip them naked, drench them in water, and take basic necessities like mattresses and toothbrushes.

The 16th Street Baptist Church is in Birmingham, Alabama—a city whose segregationist policies and racist violence become a great obstacle for the Freedom Riders in 1961. Starting on May 2nd, 1963, Black children gather at the church under the direction of Jim Bevel to begin their protest walk to a downtown park, in what became known as the Children’s March. Bull Connor arrests nearly a thousand children. He also deploys police dogs, water hoses, and physical beatings from police on the children through the next week. This event affected the nature of media and public perception surrounding the movement, as many Americans were horrified by the images and reports of the violence. Later, on September 15th, the Ku Klux Klan firebombs the church, murdering four young Black girls.

The SCLC is a civil rights organization founded in the late 1950s. During the timespan of the graphic novel, it is helmed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. While both the SCLC and the SNCC advocate for civil rights, Lewis depicts the divide that begins to grow between their animating philosophies. The SCLC favors endeavors toward suffrage, rather than direct action. The SCLC is made up of established civil rights leaders like Dr. King, who sometimes clash with young activists who do not want to compromise with their oppressors. In 1962 at the SNCC’s second anniversary conference, Lewis notes that founding SNCC members like Diane Nash, James Bevel, and more had increasingly absented themselves from the SNCC to organize with the SCLC, which was more animated by their Christian ethos and nonviolent commitment.