March: Book Two

March: Book Two (2015) is the second installment in a trilogy of graphic memoirs that follow the experiences of the late Congressman John Lewis during the civil rights movement. They are co-written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, and illustrated by Nate Powell. They build upon and illustrate events Lewis discussed in his previous written memoirs, such as 1998’s Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of a Movement, co-written with Mike D’Orso.

This installment of the trilogy follows Lewis from 1961 to 1963, from shortly after his first imprisonment for staging sit-ins at lunch counters with the Nashville Students Movement, to just after the March on Washington where Lewis spoke as one of the “Big Six.” The graphic memoir gives readers an inside look at civil rights organizing, exploring The Power of Collective Action and Community Organizing, The Diversity of Tactics Within the Civil Rights Movement, and The Nature of Media and Public Perception.

The trilogy has won several awards and honors. March: Book Two placed second on The Village Voice’s 2014 list of “The 10 Most Subversive Comics at New York Comic Con,” and received the 2016 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work.

This guide uses the 2015 Top Shelf Productions paperback.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of racism, antigay bias, and graphic violence.

Summary

In the frame narrative, on January 20th, 2009, Congressman John Lewis and others attend the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama.

In the main narrative, the story flashes back to Lewis’s life in the early 1960s. After Lewis is arrested for his role in the lunch counter protests in late 1960, his parents are ashamed of him. He dedicates more time to the Nashville Student Movement, which turns its attention to integrating restaurants, cafeterias, and movie theatres. The students are met with increasing violence. In spring 1961, Lewis sees an ad asking people to participate in “Freedom Rides.” He travels to Washington, DC, where he and a small, integrated group receive instructions on the tactics of nonviolence they will adopt. The goal is to test the enforcement of integration legislation on a bus journey into the Deep South.

Almost immediately, the Freedom Riders are arrested and beaten. Lewis leaves briefly for a meeting, intending to meet his bus in Birmingham. In his absence, the bus is firebombed and attacked by the Ku Klux Klan, with permission from Birmingham’s Chief of Police, Theophilius Eugene “Bull” Connor. James Farmer, the director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), agrees with Attorney General Robert “Bobby” Kennedy that the Freedom Rides should be called off; Diane Nash, a fellow activist, and Lewis think capitulating will kill their movement.

In 2009, Obama takes the stage and hugs Lewis.

In 1961, Lewis returns to Birmingham to rejoin the Rides. The Riders are held in darkness inside the bus for hours before Connor drives them to the state line in the dead of night. Nash sends cars to pick up the Riders, and they take alternate routes to sneak back to Birmingham’s Greyhound Station. No bus drivers are willing to drive the group, and they must shelter overnight while the Klan rallies outside. They hear on the radio that Bobby Kennedy is trying to negotiate with local officials to allow the Rides to continue.

The Rides resume on May 20th, but the Riders are violently attacked again outside Montgomery. Their lives are narrowly saved by Floyd Mann, Alabama’s Public Safety Director. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. arrives in town to negotiate between the Freedom Riders and the government while the Riders shelter in the First Baptist Church. Bobby Kennedy wants them to pause the Rides, but they refuse. A growing mob outside the church begins to hurt people, and Kennedy calls in the National Guard. Dr. King gives a statement on the determination of the Riders but won’t join himself.

In Jackson, Mississippi, the riders are all taken to jail. Nash continues to send Riders to Jackson, and the jail grows so full that Lewis and others are transferred to the brutal Mississippi State Penitentiary known as “Parchman Farm,” where they are severely mistreated by the warden and guards. They are released in July and the Rides continue. In September, Robert Kennedy petitions the Interstate Commerce Commission to rule to enforce integration.

In 1962, Lewis returns to Nashville and notices some rifts forming. New members like Stokely Charmichael think that self-defense should be allowed in the face of violence. Bobby Kennedy wants the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to stop using direct action and instead register voters; Dr. King agrees. Many in the SNCC are dubious of stopping direct action, so they divide their efforts. Activists registering Black voters are met with extreme violence. Lewis stays with the SNCC even though he notices that much of the old leadership is gone. He’s elected to the executive coordinating committee. There continues to be tension surrounding integration efforts through 1962 and early 1963. Dr. King is arrested and writes his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

In May 1963, Jim Bevel begins training Black children and teenagers to march in Birmingham. They start the “Children’s March.” Bull Connor arrests children en masse and orders them to be attacked with fire hoses and police dogs. These displays of brutality are aired on the news, showing many people the violence protestors face. In June, Dr. King announces plans for the March on Washington. Lewis is elected chairperson of the SNCC and becomes one of the March’s “Big Six” on the SNCC’s behalf.

In 2009, Obama takes the oath of office.

In July 1963, Lewis meets with the Big Six in Washington, DC, to plan the march. Bobby Kennedy tells Lewis how the SNCC’s actions have changed his perspective on their struggle. Many people help Lewis write his speech for the march, but on the day of the event, older organizing members and religious officials object to its overt criticism of the government and its revolutionary language. On A. Philip Randolph’s urging, Lewis agrees to tone down his speech. The day culminates with King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

In 2009, Obama begins his First Inaugural Address.

On September 15th, 1963, Klan members bomb the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, murdering four young girls.