And Then I Read: MARCH Book Three

Art by Nate Powell, written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin.

The final volume of this trilogy is by far the longest at about 250 pages. It covers the story of the fight for racial equality and John Lewis’s part in it from Sept. 1963 to August 1965, and is packed with information and events, many of them horrific examples of terrorism, violence and hatred directed at blacks in the south attempting to gain the right to vote, among other rights we now take as commonplace for all Americans. It begins with the bombing of a church in which four girls were killed, and ends with the signing of an important federal law. Between those, John Lewis is there on many marches and acts of civil disobedience, often attacked violently by police and jailed with so many others. Beside him are other leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King. In the wings are figures like Malcolm X and President Lyndon Johnson. This is important history that many of us don’t know, or know only parts of, and that makes this trilogy historic, but it’s also gripping reading. I salute those who produced it, and will not forget what I read in it.

Highly recommended.