As soon as the freedom riders arrived in Montgomery, Alabama they were ambushed by a racist mob who attacked everyone involved with the freedom movement, not only the freedom riders themselves. The mob had attacked the freedom riders, cameramen, and even a federal agent. They had the intent to kill the people and the spirit of the movement right there and then, but were saved by Floyd Mann the public safety director of Alabama. The violence continued soon after at the baptist church where the freedom riders were gathered once they found out about the warrants out for their arrests. The mob grew outside while discussions about the next move were discussed on the inside. The pure hate and aggression the freedom riders and supporters of the equality movement faced shows just how bad our country was, I know we still have a ways to go until we can completely eradicate discrimination and bias. However I do believe we have come a long way since the events that John Lewis has portrayed in this book, I also believe we can make it to the goal of freedom and equality for all once we can get through to the people who are currently too stubborn to change from old viewpoints by showing the way to move forward in the most positive and beneficial way is to look at everyone around us and see nothing but potential for greatness. John Lewis and his group of supporters showed everyone he is willing to risk his life for a safer and more positive country for everyone. He also enlightened the readers of this book to his journey, struggles, and saddening events that he was put through while only trying to help everyone. A big problem that I see in the book as well as current day is giving a position of power to people who are willing to abuse that power and inflict suffering on those they believe deserve it, not using their power to better the place we call “Free and Equal”.

After reading this comic I came to the conclusion that I enjoy reading them a lot more than reading a regular book. One thing that I like about comics is the fact that there are pictures and the reading is not too much to the point where I fall asleep while reading. In the past, I have read other comics like The Walking Dead series which was a lot of fun to see the difference between the comics and the show. When the comic first started, I believe it was from Martin Luther King’s march in Selma which I learned about briefly while watching the movie “Selma” during my senior year of high school. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a history buff especially because I didn’t really learn that much about it. For example, in the first 61 pages, I was introduced to John Lewis for the first time who was a Congressman who spoke 6th out of 10 people during Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. To me, this is very important to our society today. For instance, not just this comic but about this topic of racial equality. Even to this day we struggle with this and this has been going on for so long and to me it’s very heartbreaking to see this as I along with a majority of the people in this world want everyone to be equal no matter who you are, where you come from, or what you look like. On another note, one thing that I did already know that I will quote from this comic are the Beatitudes which I learned while attending a private Catholic high school. John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell write, “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God” (Lewis et. al 28). In the comic, John Lewis talks about his childhood which I found very interesting because he cared very deeply for the chickens that he raised. He grew so emotionally attached that he named some of the chickens and could tell all of them apart. In addition, he would bury the chickens that would die and even baptize them after thinking of becoming a preacher. Lastly, I do think that this is very important for our country. Lewis, Aydin, and Powell write, “The county didn’t bother paving roads into ‘colored’ communities unless it was necessary for white traffic to pass through” (Lewis et. al 48). Hearing this and knowing in the past that white people and African Americans were segregated meaning African Americans had separate bathrooms, restaurants, and water fountains I can tell that we have made a step in the right direction because to my knowledge, this is not the case anymore. However, racial equality is still not where it needs to be and needs a lot more work which really opened a lot of people’s eyes after innocent African Americans were killed such as George Floyd and Brianna Taylor.

This section of The March Comic Book was pretty brutal. The beginning of the second book started off with John Lewis at The House of Representatives waiting to be seated for a ceremony in Washington D.C. On the next page, the reader learns that John Lewis rarely goes home due to his damaged relationship with his parents after getting arrested. However, John Lewis is a part of the group called The Freedom Riders in Nashville that feels more like home to him than his actual home. This part of the comic was a little hard to understand because I felt like it jumped around a lot. For example, it started in 2009 and flashed back to 1960. However, this part of the comic talked a lot about the horrible things done to African Americans who were trying to peacefully gain racial equality simply by trying to buy movie tickets or sitting down in an all white restaurant. None of these ended well because a lot of African Americans were arrested and beat up very badly. In addition, when the African American’s sat in an all white restaurant, they were locked in there while a fumigator going off which was used to kill pests. If that doesn’t show how cruel these white people were, I don’t know what will. I feel like the main part of this section was about freedom riders where a group of African Americans and even a couple of white people traveled from Washington D.C. all the way to New Orleans. One thing that caught my eye was that these freedom riders passed through Farmville which I thought was pretty interesting. However, this was not an ordinary trip. These people signed wills not knowing if they would make it back home from the South. A lot of African Americans and white people who were freedom riders were beat up and arrested after having their buses lit on fire by white supremacists. Lastly, I have learned and heard about the Freedom Riders in the past but never knew that John Lewis was a part of it nor did I know that there were white people included in this as well. If I could find anything good out of this, I was happy that these Freedom Riders had at least some white people on their side to help them fight for racial equality.

After reading pages 61-121 of march I noticed some things that stuck out at me. The first thing being the correlation of the civil rights movement, and the black lives matter protest. Another thing is how people and Senator John Lewis handled the protest and discrimination. The last being the similarities of events that happened during before/during the civil rights movement, and the black lives matter movement.            The marches on Washington D.C. were are crucial role and part of the civil rights movement which again happened as part of the BLM protests. Both events involved people from all parts of the U.S. to show up and march and speak their mind. A positive thing to highlight with the BLM protests, is that people of all races, ethnicities, and backgrounds showed up to march and show solidarity to the black community. The artwork, music, and other products that came from both movements is also a commonality.        The racism and hatred that John Lewis and and others faced was sickening to read about. During John and others protest, they were spit on, physically hit, had things thrown at them etc. Although this heinous display of actions occurred, John and others remained poised and controlled which is something I could never do. There are still heinous acts that happen today not as much but still happen none the less and that is also a crime itself.         The last things that stood out was things that happened before/during the two movements. One of them being individuals being murdered or physically harmed for no reason. Cases like George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery were murders that should never have happened just like Emmett Till. The events to spark both movements should never have happened, and unfortunately did and caused these movements for change, and for the better.  This section of march really showed and along with the overall text will continue to show and display the similarities of both movements.

After reading March Book One pages 62-122 I now know a bit more details about what really went on during the time of Martin Luther King Jr, John Lewis, and Thurgood Marshall. Social Gospel was a social movement within Protestantism. In my opinion Social Gospel is the use of Christian principles to social problems. An example of the impact of Social Gospel can be the change to labour reforms of the 1930s where child labour, shorter work weeks, and factory regulation issues were resolved. These were just a few of the peoples concerns. Social Gospel relates to Book One of March because of the social injustice, economic inequality, and poverty. In March Book One it explains how John Lewis couldn’t stop thinking about the Social Gospel where he took the path of non-violence to make a change for not just personal reform but for social reform. My definition of Social Gospel relates to my life when my mother uses her faith in Christ for strength to help her through the rough times. Another example can be my father using the word of God to calm his mind and soul to keep his social issues in line. Social Gospel relates to the world we live in now how people pray and protest under Christianity for changes in women’s right, changes in police brutality, or even stopping the spread of hate by loving Jesus. I feel as though I am literate in Social Gospel but I don’t necessarily apply it to my everyday life. This is honestly just from growing up and only being shown Christianity so when I was able to make my own opinions on religion I felt different than most Christians. In my opinion Social Gospel can be have many different meanings it just depends on the individuals perception. #themarathoncontinues