Dear Representative John Lewis,

     This section of March: Book Three detailed the horrific acts of the government, police, and citizens in the fight for equal voting rights. We first see the difference in voting procedures between a white male and black female. We see the white male being treated like a human being, able to cast his vote with much ease, with voluntary help from the employees. Immediately we see the stark difference when the Black women was forced to take a literacy narrative, and the overall illustration became more corrupt and wild as the employees were yelling slurs and cheering her on to leave. It felt almost impossible to vote in that moment. We then see the actions taken by SNCC and other civil rights organizations to combat this, through protests, Freedom Day, the Dallas City Courthouse Demonstration, Freedom Votes, SNCC meetings, etc, detailed vividly in the text.

    These actions helped me understand the full extent of the prevalence of inequality in the 1960s. The smaller details that were shown in the illustrations were very impactful. These included black voters having to count the number of jellybeans in a jar, not being able to serve in a restaurant you own stock in due to skin color, and the anger of a police officer as a black man used a public restroom that was not segregated. All of these details were mentioned casually, catching me off guard. I wonder why none of the SNCC volunteers questioned what they would have to go through. 

    In order to stop actions like this in the future, we need to continue doing what was done in the book, and speak out. By speaking out intently, we can make a statement to those who still value inequality.

#Protest #JohnLewis #March #Equalityforall

Thank You,

Naveen Thourani