Dear Mr. Lewis…
When I first began to read the story, I did not expect myself to find a world full of imagery that showed the true story of segregation in the United States. I thought you did a fantastic job with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell in terms of describing the story with such accuracy. I felt angry when I read the part about the bombing because to do it at a church is very demeaning. But I suppose it made sense because I thought about the bombing as a message saying, “Not even God could save you now.” Most of my classmates said something different but that was what I thought. I also felt the same emotions when I read about the deaths of Ware and Robinson because their deaths were undeserved. The officer totally meant to shoot Robinson and claimed it was an accident because that’s what everyone did. It felt as if it was “Purge of African-Americans” or something else. What they could do back then was “legal”. But here is something that I have to think about. If these issues occured in today’s society, then the ways we can do to combat it would’ve been completely different. We have technology and it could be heavily used for and against African-Americans. There would be a lot more organized protests, too. During the church bombing, did you interview the people that were involved or do it based on reports? Because the deaths of Virgil Lamar Ware and Johnny Robinson felt as if it came from a news report (I did some research and found out that they were killed within seven hours of the bombing). Also, what were the segments with Barack Obama about? Was it the result of the accomplishment of Civil Rights?
Sincerely,
Fernando Castillo