Dear John Lewis,

This time my class read through pages 174 through 246 of March book 3. In these pages, lots of events occurred. Jimmie Lee Jackson was died from being shot by officers while protesting in Alabama. Malcolm X had been assassinated and you were grieving over his death despite your different views. At Jacksons’ funereal the idea of a Selma to Montgomery march had been born. You had a disagreement with SNCC and decided that you would March by yourself, not representing SNCC. The story goes to 2009 when you met Obama and received a postcard from him. At the first Selma to Montgomery march, the marchers were viciously attacked and you thought you would die. Because of it being televised, that day was known as Bloody Sunday. Lyndon B. Johnson called to end all voting rights discrimination. The Selma to Montgomery march did successfully happen. In the end, the 1965 voting rights act was signed into law.
What I read made me feel, for the most part, happy and satisfied to see that all the sacrifices and hardship for the right to vote finally paid off. I was unhappy to see that people, like yourself, were beaten and even murdered to try and get the right to vote.
The issues brought up in this story is of racism and inequality. The denying of black people the right to vote is unconstitutional and racist. Denying one the right to vote goes against Americas’ democratic values. Therefore whether its injustice or racism it is the responsibility of everyone to combat these issues because these problems are relevant to everybody. To combat such issues, we need to bring awareness to issues such as racism and injustice. If people don’t know there is a problem then it is more likely they won’t help fight against it.

Sincerely, Uzzal Das

Dear John Lewis

I read pages 100-173 and in those pages, a lot of things happened. The first major occurrence in those pages occurred with the testimony of Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer. She was harassed because she had attempted to register to vote. She was arrested and beaten in her prison cell. The president tried to remove it from the air by calling a press conference. You took a trip to Africa and learned a new word, Uhuru, meaning freedom. On your trip, you met with Malcolm X and he had helped you realize that the struggle in Africa is similar to that in America. Dr. King became the youngest person ever to receive a Nobel peace prize. A mass protest is set in Alabama to be able to vote.
I felt a mix of anger and hopefull. I was obviously upset and angered to see the harassment and harsh treatment the people of the movement had to go through just to be able to vote. But I was also happy and hopeful to see that people were working towards a better future and trying to make a change for the better. I was also a little bit encouraged to fight back against any injustice seeing the lengths people went to in order to vote.
The story, like the previous pages, show peoples struggle to be able to vote and be an active member of their community. However, the issue at hand is bigger than just voting in the south. The issue is about fighting for freedom and against the oppressors that oppress the oppressed.
Today the best approach today is to go and vote, the thing that many suffered to have the right to do. We have to respect people’s sacrifices by going and voting. We can help raise awareness in places where there may not be fair elections or an oppressive system.

Sincerely, Uzzal Das

Dear John Lewis,

In this reading session of March, the story begins with the beginning of the movement by depicting the nightly mass meetings in Selma. The movement was based upon the right to vote and the book later showed how African Americans would be denied their right to vote. The story progresses to show protests at the Dallas county courthouse where John Lewis himself was arrested. Freedom day was where the SNCC staged its largest mobilization on registration day. Freedom vote was a mock election in Mississippi to see how many African Americans would vote. Kennedy’s assassination really hurt John Lewis and the movement. The last SNCC meeting included the discussion of the Mississippi Freedom Project where they were going to attempt to get all people in Mississippi to vote, including African Americans. To do this they needed volunteers to help with the cause. 3 of the volunteers went missing when they were supposedly caught speeding. Their car was found in the woods and it was clear that it was a hate crime done by local law enforcement.
This reading made me feel positive in some parts and negative in others. I felt good when reading about the movement and all the progress being made but felt bad when reading about the hate crimes and discrimination. The central problem within the reading was that African Americans were being denied the right to vote as well as being discriminated against. Today the issue of voting and segregation is not as prominent but there are still instances of discrimination. To combat this I propose we grow awareness to any discrimination occurring today so that everyone is informed of the problem and can help in the fight. We could also ask congress to create stricter anti-discriminatory laws and to enforce them to prevent any discrimination.

Sincerely,

Uzzal Das

Dear John Lewis,

Recently I have had the pleasure to start the third edition of your book, March. I have only read until page 18 but I must say that I am completely engrossed by the book so far. Let me summarize what I have read so far. The story starts off at the sixteenth street baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama where students are participating in Sunday school. Out of know where there was a sudden explosion from a bomb attack on the church. The bombing injured 21 kids and killed 4 little girls. Then we see a bunch of eagle scout kids with KKK association attack African American kids while chanting their unwillingness to integrate. Later you arrived at Birmingham and headed straight to the church, which served as headquarters for the civil rights movement in Birmingham. A funeral ceremony was held for the victims of the church bombing.

As I stated before, the beginning of this story had really caught my attention. The story makes feel sorry for the people that were affected by the Birmingham church bombing. It also made me feel angry towards the white supremacists that could conduct such terrorism. It’s hard to believe that kids so young are brainwashed and trained to conduct hateful acts against the African American community. Certain questions arise when reading this such as, why did the white supremacists feel it necessary to bomb the church? Obvious issues such as racism and hate crimes are displayed in the story.

As for the church bombing, the supremacists use this as a way to intimidate civil rights supporters and send their message regarding integration. Today racism and hate crimes are still a thing and I believe we can address this issue through promoting equality using mass media. We can also see to it that equality is assured in public policy.

Sincerely,

Uzzal Das