March: Book One

Andrew Aydin is an American comics writer. Aydin is a Turkish American who grew up with a single mother in Georgia. As a child, he read and collected comic books. Aydin started his career at Trinity College and Georgetown University. While there, Aydin wrote his thesis on and was influenced by the 1950s comics book Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story. After college, Aydin worked as a district aid and eventually began working for John Lewis during his 2008 re-election campaign. When he learned Lewis had a personal connection to The Montgomery Story, Aydin felt inspired to work with Lewis to write a graphic novel detailing Lewis’s experiences in the civil rights movement.

Aydin has won multiple awards for his work on the March trilogy. He received the National Book Award, Printz Award, Walter Dean Myers Award, and many others.

Nate Powell is a graphic novelist and musician from Little Rock, Arkansas. At age 14, Powell began self-publishing and playing in a punk rock band. In addition to his work on the March trilogy, Powell has written many books, including Save It for Later, Come Again, Swallow Me Whole, and others.

Powell developed his own punk rock label, played in punk rock bands, and was a caregiver for adults with developmental disabilities for 10 years. Powell has won numerous awards for his comic publishing, including the Ignatz Award, Eisner Award, Coretta Scott King Award, and Robert F. Kennedy Award. Powell was also the first cartoonist to win the National Book Award.

Although President Barack Obama does not appear as a character in March: Book One, John Lewis’s story in the graphic memoir is built upon the foundation of Obama’s 2009 inauguration. Barack Obama was the 44th president of the United States, serving from 2009 to 2017. He made history as the country’s first Black president. One of the few indicators that the framing story in March is set on inauguration day comes from the television in Lewis’s home as he prepares for the day ahead.

Born in Hawaii, Obama was the only US president born outside of mainland 48 states. He attended Occidental College and later Columbia University, majoring in political science. He later enrolled at Harvard Law School in 1988. President Obama ran on the campaign slogan “Hope” in 2008. This slogan epitomizes the life and work of John Lewis. Obama awarded John Lewis the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010, saying, “I first met John when I was in law school, and I told him then that he was one of my heroes. Years later, when I was elected a US Senator, I told him that I stood on his shoulders.” Obama is the author of Dreams From My Father (1995), The Audacity of Hope (2009), and A Promised Land (2020).

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is perhaps the most important and prominent figure of the civil rights movement in the mid-20th century. This Baptist minister fought tirelessly for social justice, using the principles of social gospel and nonviolent protest to achieve his dreams of a more equal world. King’s involvement in the movement was a principal contributor to its success. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968, a day after delivering his famous speech, "I Have Been to the Mountaintop," leading to nationwide riots.

Lewis cites King as the most influential person in his life. When he first hears King on the radio as a young boy, Lewis is inspired by the way King uses biblical principles to advocate for civil rights. King paves the way for Lewis, and Lewis feels compelled to lend himself to the movement.

After being accused of whistling at a white woman in 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was subsequently kidnapped, beaten, tortured, and murdered by two white men. Emmett Till’s mother insisted upon an open casket funeral in Chicago, and tens of thousands of people attended Till’s funeral. His murder was widely covered by news outlets, and images of his mangled body appeared in papers across the country. The widespread attention brought to the killing of an innocent child—particularly after his murderers were found not guilty by an all-white jury—led to public outcry. One year later, Till’s murderers admitted their actions in an interview with Look magazine.

Till’s mother traveled around the country, sharing the story of her son and fundraising for the NAACP. When Rosa Parks attended a rally for Till, she was inspired to refuse to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger. The image of Till’s body became a symbol of the movement. Powell’s decision to include an illustration of Till’s mangled body with a tire tied around his neck is an homage to the powerful symbolism of the image that sparked a movement.

After attending a rally for Emmett Till, Rosa Parks was inspired to become an activist for civil rights. On December 1, 1955, Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger, and she was arrested. Her activism played an important part in the Montgomery bus boycott, and the NAACP selected her to challenge her arrest in court.

Lewis describes the quality that made Rosa Parks so impactful: “My family didn’t know Rosa Parks, but they knew plenty of women like her. More than a few wives and mothers from Pike County did domestic work in Montgomery” (58). Rosa Parks was like so many other women, merely making her way to and from work on a bus line that continued to dehumanize her. Parks received the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Medal of Honor for her work in the civil rights movement.

James Lawson, referred to in March: Book One as Jim Lawson, is a professor and American civil rights activist. Lawson led the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and trained protestors in nonviolent action and resistance. Lawson had a profound influence on Lewis, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. recognized Lawson as being one of the “noble men” who had an impact on the civil rights movement.

Lawson performed missionary work in India in 1952 and was inspired by the life of Gandhi. He took the principles he learned there and applied them to the need he saw for activism in the United States. Lewis describes Lawson’s teachings as liberating and viewed his means of nonviolent action as “the way out” (78).