U.S. Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis has brought his award-winning and best-selling graphic novel series March to the Bay Area this week, with a visit to Apple headquarters and speeches to thousands of students at San Francisco State University and San Francisco Public Library, as part of the launch tour for the new March: Book Two.
Congressman Lewis and co-author Andrew Aydin spoke to Apple employees in Cupertino and beyond, following an introduction from Apple CEO Tim Cook, who said: "My hope is that everyone reads this, & I would love to see the day that it's required reading in every school." Later, Cook tweeted his support of the trilogy:
Cook's praise for March now joins the chorus from other major figures and media outlets:
"Congressman John Lewis has been a resounding moral voice in the quest for equality for more than 50 years, and I'm so pleased that he is sharing his memories of the Civil Rights Movement with America's young leaders. In March, he brings a whole new generation with him across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, from a past of clenched fists into a future of outstretched hands." — President Bill Clinton
"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... the story of a true American superhero." — USA Today
"A riveting chronicle of Lewis’s extraordinary life… it powerfully illustrates how much perseverance is needed to achieve fundamental social change." — O, The Oprah Magazine
"An astonishingly accomplished graphic memoir." — NPR
Written by Lewis & Aydin and drawn by award-winning artist Nate Powell, March has become a cultural phenomenon, an instant #1 New York Times bestseller, and the first graphic novel to ever receive a Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. Today, as we head into the 50th anniversary of the landmark "Bloody Sunday" march in Selma that he led with Hosea Williams, the story of March is more essential than ever.
It's fitting that, just as Lewis and his generation were inspired by the 1950s comic book "Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story," Lewis is now performing the vital work of educating young people about the past and inspiring them to build the future — through the transformative power of nonviolence.
