March by John Lewis

This isn’t a review. I’m a little surprised I haven’t heard of this trilogy.

For those who don’t know, John Lewis is one of the last remaining civils rights era icons of the mid-20th century civil rights movement that took place throughout the United States. A movement that persists to this day. He’s represented Georgia in the US House of Representatives for some time now. When he speaks about civil rights and liberties people listen because he was on the front lines of the movement long before plenty of people (myself included) were ever born and before millions of people embraced the change that was undoubtedly needed but difficult to come by.

I just accidentally stumbled upon a set of books he’s written to chronicle the era. But these aren’t your typical history books. They’re graphic novels. I imagine the aim is to educate a younger audience in history through a medium they’re familiar with. I have no information on whether or not this is happening, but I’d actually like to see middle and high school teachers use the books to supplement textbooks. Time in the classroom is so limited, much the same as space in textbooks, so I say why not assign students graphic novels written by someone who has one of the greatest perspectives of the era? I remember being taught almost exclusively from textbooks in history classes, which is fine but far from exhaustive.

I think this trilogy of graphic novels set during the mid-20th century is a good way to teach history in a different way that many will embrace and enjoy.

What do you think of using them to teach history?