#1 New York Times BestsellerCongressman John Lewis (GA-5) is an American icon and key figure of the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, and from receiving beatings from state troopers to receiving the Medal of Freedom from the first African-American president.
Now, to share his remarkable story with new generations, Lewis presents
March, a graphic novel trilogy, in collaboration with co-writer Andrew Aydin and
New York Times best-selling artist Nate Powell (winner of the Eisner Award and LA Times Book Prize finalist for
Swallow Me Whole).
March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis' lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis' personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.
Book One spans John Lewis' youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a stunning climax on the steps of City Hall.
Many years ago, John Lewis and other student activists drew inspiration from the 1958 comic book "Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story." Now, his own comics bring those days to life for a new audience, testifying to a movement whose echoes will be heard for generations.
Winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award — Special Recognition#1 Washington Post BestsellerA Coretta Scott King Honor BookAn ALA Notable BookOne of YALSA's Top 10 Great Graphic Novels for TeensOne of YALSA's Top 10 Popular Paperbacks for Young AdultsOne of YALSA's Outstanding Books for the College BoundOne of Reader's Digest's Graphic Novels Every Grown-Up Should ReadEndorsed by NYC Public Schools' "NYC Reads 365" programSelected for first-year reading programs by Michigan State University, Marquette University, and Georgia State UniversityNominated for three Will Eisner AwardsNominated for the Glyph AwardNamed one of the best books of 2013 by USA Today, The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, School Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, The Horn Book, Paste, Slate, ComicsAlliance, Amazon, and Apple iBooks.
On sale: August 13, 2013
Grade: Grades 6-12
Page count: 128 Pages
ISBN: 9781603093002
Congressman John Lewis was a leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. He was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and played a key role in the struggle to end segregation. Despite more than 40 arrests, physical attacks, and serious injuries, John Lewis remained a devoted advocate of the philosophy of nonviolence. He is co-author of the first comics work to ever win the National Book Award, the #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novel memoir trilogy
MARCH, written with Andrew Aydin and illustrated by Nate Powell. He is also the recipient of numerous awards from national and international institutions including the Lincoln Medal, the John F. Kennedy "Profile in Courage" Lifetime Achievement Award, and the NAACP Spingarn Medal, among many others. He lives in Atlanta, GA.
Andrew Aydin is creator and co-author of the #1 New York Times best-selling graphic memoir series,
MARCH. Co-authored with Rep. Lewis and illustrated by Nate Powell,
MARCH is the first comics work to ever win the National Book Award, and is a recipient of the Will Eisner Comics Industry Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award Special Recognition, and the Coretta Scott King Book Award Author Honor, among other honors. Aydin's other comics work includes writing the
X-Files Annual 2016 (IDW), writing for the
CBLDF Liberty Annual 2016 (Image), and writing an upcoming issue of
Bitch Planet (Image).
Nate Powell is a New York Times best-selling graphic novelist born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1978. He began self-publishing at age 14, and graduated from School of Visual Arts in 2000. His work includes
MARCH,
You Don't Say,
Any Empire,
Swallow Me Whole,
The Silence Of Our Friends,
The Year Of The Beasts, and Rick Riordan's
The Lost Hero. Powell is the first and only cartoonist ever to win the National Book Award. Powell has discussed his work at the United Nations, as well as on MSNBC's
The Rachel Maddow Show and CNN.
"Brave acts of civil disobedience... [give]
March its educational value even as Powell's drawings give Lewis's crisp narration an emotional power."
— The New York Times
"A riveting and beautiful civil-rights story… Lewis's gripping memoir should be stocked in every school and shelved at every library."
— The Washington Post"Essential reading...
March is a moving and important achievement... the story of a true American superhero."
— USA Today
