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