Representative Lewis,

The book has, at this point, run its course and left an impact on the reader, but the best is yet to come in the final pages. We start by hearing about the assassination of Malcolm X which, while the SNCC and other followers of Dr. King didn’t agree with his methods, was a stunning loss to the movement. Then we move on to see you organize the march across the bridge where you get beaten and sent to the hospital in what eventually would become known as “Bloody Sunday”. A subsequent march saw a few klansmen attack some ministers and kill one of them, which finally prompted President Johnson to speak regarding the problem in the country. After this you began your march on the capitol. Four months after this event, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law.

This part of the story was essentially the climax where we see the boiling point of the SNCC, an assassination, and some of the most violent events of the whole story, and the resolution, where we see the law getting passed. As such, the reading didn’t leave many lingering questions.Because of this, it made me feel powerful. This part of the book made me think of how all the hard work I put into something will really be worth it in the end if I see it through. 

We see some of the same problems today with the police against the people. I believe that the best way to remedy this situation is for each side to put themselves in the other’s shoes. The police could understand that there is a community that believes that the police are out to get them because of race alone, and this community could try to understand that a police officer is just a person trying to do their job who have to follow certain protocol that, while they may seem cruel and unfair, in many cases they have no say in what they need to do. Many of the worlds problems could be solved by putting ourselves in each other’s shoes.

Thank you for your contributions to the United States,

David Guevara