Voting Struggle and Discrimination in “March”

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