Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story

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Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story is a 16-page comic book about Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and the Montgomery bus boycott published in 1957 by the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR USA). It advocates the principles of nonviolence and provides a primer on nonviolent resistance.[1]

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and a social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a seminal event in the civil rights movement in the United States. The campaign lasted from December 5, 1955—the Monday after Rosa Parks, an African-American woman also civil rights activist, was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat to a white man—to December 20, 1956, when the federal ruling Browder v. Gayle took effect, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws that segregated buses were unconstitutional.[2]

Publication History

Following the success story of Montgomery Bus Boycott movement, Glenn E. Smiley came up with the idea of using a comic book to bring the story of the bus boycott to a wide audience. Smiley himself had been personally active in the bus boycott, and had formed a friendship with Dr. King. Presenting the comic idea as a way to reach wider audiences, the group acquired grant funding of $5,000 for the project from the Fund for the Republic. Hassler and Benton Resnik co-wrote the text, while artist Sy Barry, best known for his work on The Phantom comic strip, illustrated the book.[3] Dr. King himself endorsed the book and even provided a few editorial suggestions.[4] The publication date was 1957, barely a year after the bus boycotts in Montgomery had ended.[5]

Plot

The comic opens with a one-page synopsis of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and education up until 1957.

The narrative then shifts to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1954. An African American man named Jones tells of life in Montgomery under Jim Crow laws. He describes the events of the Montgomery bus boycott -a political and a social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama-[6] and the important role played by Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. In the story, King advocates nonviolence, even when his own home is bombed during the boycott.

The last section of the comic discusses the "Montgomery Method" of nonviolence, its roots in the activism of Mahatma Gandhi, and provides practical advice on how to pursue nonviolent activism.

The comic book represents a key example of long-overlooked efforts in the civil rights movement to use comic books, the thinner relatives of what we today call graphic novels, to educate and inspire young people.

External Link

Watch video about Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story at Youtube

References

  1. Bello, Grace. A Comic Book for Social Justice: John Lewis. Publishers Weekly. 19 July 2013. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  2. Montgomery Bus Boycott (Dec 5, 1955 — Dec 21, 1956). Civil Rights Movement Archive. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  3. Klein, Christopher. The MLK Graphic Novel That Inspired John Lewis and Generations of Civil Rights Activists. History.com. 7 February 2020. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  4. Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  5. Aydin, Andrew. Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story. tolerance.org. 2015. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  6. Montgomery Bus Boycott. Retrieved January 13, 2021