Morganlee's Blog

Sep 23

 

Dear John Lewis,

I am writing you this letter in response to the opening section of your book March. In this section, the story begins with scenes from the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Mississippi which was a violent protest from white supremacist who were against black people trying to gain the right to vote; this occurred on the same day as a youth rally hosted by the church and four little girls were killed in the blast. We then see the funeral for the girls; this event led to chaos in the community which brought about a division which eventually lead to a police shooting and the murder on a young boy.

While reading this story, I couldn’t help but to notice the reflections of these events that we see in society today. The church bombing could be compared to the Charleston church shooting which was a mass shooting also committed by a white supremacist; nine African Americans were murdered during a prayer service at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. Another example are the many cases of deadly police brutality instances of the years like the deaths of Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, and Philando Castile. This gave me an uneasy feeling; I wondered why things like this are still possible given the many years of activism and progress that we have many as a country and is they will ever stop occurring. Was it your intent to have the audience make these connections?

Photo and Mugshot of Sandra Bland

Photo and Mugshot of Sandra Bland

Although I am still unsure if it is possible to fix these problems that are deeply rooted in the history of our country, I believe that if we as a country true acknowledge our wrong doings and treat racism as am unacceptable form of bigotry that has no place in our country; we can combat the issue in a productive way.

Sincerely,

Morgan-Lee Blake

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