I think ['March'] is not just for the Black Lives Matter movement. It's for everyone. We all have to understand what happened then, so we can understand what's happening now.

Andrew Aydin

Categorized in : Thinking Movement Black

Most students graduate from high school knowing nine words about the civil rights movement: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and "I Have a Dream." And that's it!

kings dream school

For me, it was a mission on the hill to sensitize people, because they don't know Muslim immigrants. And for the most part, a lot of us just keep our heads down. But if I can engage someone in conversation, someone who maybe does support Donald Trump, or at least isn't speaking out against him, and I can show him the fear that I have, then maybe I can turn that tide.

tides support people

What crystallized the importance of speaking out like that - of making nonviolence not just a tool or a tactic, but a way of life - was in San Diego [at Comic-Con]. One of the young girls who marched with us was wearing a hijab, and she came up to me afterward because I talked about my beard, and I talked about why I was doing it, and she came up and she gave me a hug, and she was crying. And she said, "Thank you. You have no idea how the other students treat me because they're shown that this is OK by Donald Trump. Thank you for speaking out."

hug girl ideas

It's important to realize that the series actually grows with the reader. "March: Book One" is a great introduction for kids as young as eight or nine years old. But then they grow with the reader. Book Two is bigger, Book Three is even bigger. And they grow more violent and more confrontational.

eight kids book

We're [also] trying to talk to a generation who grew up on the Internet. They're digital natives, and, essentially, they speak through sequential storytelling. I mean, a good comic-book panel is not that much different than a meme.

trying mean book

People forget that many of the aspects of the Selma campaign were laid out in response to the church bombing in Birmingham.

campaigns church people

So March: Book One was the first book I ever wrote. And it was the most terrifying process I've ever been through.

march book firsts

There are young people out there now who have incredible ideas and yet the older folks don't always understand it, the lessons of Run give us a candid reminder of how important it is that we all work together even if our philosophies are different.

I think the young people who read this graphic novel will change their minds, hopefully this graphic novel gives members of Congress some context and some understanding for what they're up against. I think the battle lines are pretty clearly drawn in Congress. It's up to the young people to use these lessons to change the dynamic, to change the battle lines...