Dear John Lewis, 

In pages 100-173, you go into detail on many touching events that occurred in the process of

obtaining civil rights. Some of these events include the funeral of James Chaney, the testimony of Fannie Lou Hamer, the SNCCs visit to Africa and of course the blocking of the sidewalks outside the courthouse while trying to get registered to vote. 

 The funeral of James Chaney in particular was touching for me because of the speech that not only placed blame on who pulled the trigger but all of the people who refuse to take actions so more deaths don’t occur. As I read this part of the book I found myself connecting that speech with the black lives matter movement that is happening in today’s world. This is because I personally feel that if more people understood that there was actually a problem in the way that police officers use their power of authority and more regulations and consequences were placed on those that don’t follow the rules then less deaths due to police brutality would occur in todays world.

John Lewis intent when writing these pages of the book was to show how things got out of hand and started to go bad in the fight for civil rights but ultimately the people were persistent. This is shown in the many times that black citizens stood outside in the heat of the courthouse with no food, water or bathroom breaks to try and get registered for voting. 

Today, I think that more attention is paid to protests and events where people come together to try and get a law changed. In today’s world I think it would be a little easier to get points across and get voices heard.