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.
Dear John Lewis,
In pages 25-80 of “MARCH” it goes more into detail on the events that took place after the bombing of the church in Birmingham. People started to protest in Selma and this was also the first time anyone had ever stood up to Sheriff Clark. The movemnet had started after protestors got arrested in Selma, the day after the bombing. After the arrests there was more pressure on trying to get equal voting rights. People lined up outside the courthouse while
you were still in jail to get registered for voting.
Unfortunately, despite the efforts the civilians made the registration process was made way more difficult for black people and the civilians stayed in line for hours in the beaming sun with no water. Pages 25-80 in the book demonstrate the struggles faced to try and get people ready for the “voting” going to take place.
While reading these pages in the book, I felt upset that people of color were faced with all these obstacles in order just to get their voices heard. As I was reading, something that crossed my mind 
was how can someone feel so much hate towards a race? What makes them feel so superior to treat other people like this.
In 2019 actions we can take to combat the issues presented in the book are to make sure that laws are actually being enforced. If we held EVERYONE accountable for their racist actions I think the situation would have gone differently. This is because during the time of the civil rights movement, even though it was illegal, people with authority were still beating and discriminating which gave the impression to other racist people that it was okay for them to treat black people like that aswell. In my opinion people felt entitled.
Sincerely, Samantha.
Dear John Lewis,
The beginning of the book, “MARCH” demonstrated to the reader the hardships and tragic events that were occurring during this time known as the Civil Rights Movement. In this part of the story it seems to be focusing more on equal voting rights. The book starts off with th
e bombing of the 16thstreet Baptist Church in Birmingham where 4 young girls were killed. This bombing was done as a way to send a “message” to the civil rights leaders because the church was the place where most meetings were held.
While reading these first few pages, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed in the way that black people were being treated and I was devastated at the events that took place in order to send a “message”. Although the events that were happening during this time were horrible I felt like this was the beginning of change because people were starting to come together to stand up for their rights. 
Questions I had while reading were who bombed the church?
The issues presented in the pages assigned was that black people didn’t have the same voting rights. I think this has a connection to today’s time because even though people ARE allowed to vote in this time and age, I feel like people still don’t and that’s really taking the right for granted because that is a way to get a point across. I feel like a way to combat this issue is to remind people that voting is a RIGHT that was not always available to all people so take advantage now that we have it
This was my evaluation to the first part of the book and I’m eager to keep on reading.
Sincerely, Samantha Cabrera
