March is a trilogy that tells the story of American statesman and civil rights leader John Lewis. It was written by John Lewis himself and graphic novelist writer Andrew Aydin. Illustrations are from American cartoonist Nate Powell already known to the most for his prize-winning graphic novel, Swallow Me Whole.
The trilogy covers John Lewis’ life from his childhood till 1965. The story develops while jumping through time to describe the key events that characterized the civil right movement and the fight to stop legalized racial segregation in the US. Common across the 3 books are also some scenes from January 20th 2009, day of the first inauguration of Barack Obama as 44th President of the United States.
This graphic novel does an excellent job not only describing the events that characterised the civil right movement but also describing the cultural and political context in which such events developed. The drawings are really powerful and help the reader to grasp the violence of some of those events without necessarily being exposed to the cruelty that normally comes with pictures or videos.
Winner of many international awards like Harvey Awards (Book Two – 2016), Eisner Award (Book Two – 2016 and Book Three – 2017), and National Book Award (Book Three – 2016) just to name a few, this trilogy is a must-read for everyone, not just for graphic novels aficionados.
March| Bonus contents
In order to get a better view of the kind of consequences that racial segregation had on the daily life of black people in the US during those years, I’d recommend to watch the movie Green Book from director Peter Farrelly. Check it out here!
It is inspired by the true story of a tour through the American South of an Italian-American driver and an African-American classical pianist which took place in 1962.Read more on Goodreads.
