Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story | |
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![]() Cover of Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story | |
Publication information | |
Publisher | Fellowship of Reconciliation |
Format | One-shot |
Genre | non-fiction |
Publication date | December 1957 |
No. of issues | 1 |
Main character(s) | Martin Luther King Jr. Coretta Scott King Rosa Parks Mahatma Gandhi |
Creative team | |
Written by | Alfred Hassler and Benton Resnik |
Artist(s) | Sy Barry |
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]
Although ignored by the mainstream comics industry, The Montgomery Story, written by Alfred Hassler and Benton Resnik and illustrated by Sy Barry, was widely distributed among civil rights groups, churches, and schools. It helped inspire nonviolent protest movements around the Southern United States, and later in Latin America, South Africa, [2] the Middle East, and elsewhere. Over 50 years after its initial publication, the comic inspired the best-selling, award-winning March trilogy by Georgia Congressman John Lewis. [1]
Following the success of the Montgomery bus boycott, which FOR USA had helped organize, executive secretary and director of publications [2] Alfred Hassler, [3] and FoR member the Rev. 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 had been personally active in the bus boycott, and had formed a friendship with Dr. King.) [2] Presenting the comic idea as a way to reach wider audiences (including those with lower reading levels), [2] the group acquired grant funding of $5,000 for the project [4] from the Fund for the Republic. [2] Dr, King himself endorsed the book and even provided a few editorial suggestions. [5]
Cartoonist Al Capp was an admirer of Dr. King; his studio produced Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story at no charge, [3] which was co-written by Hassler and Benton Resnik, [lower-alpha 1] and drawn by an uncredited artist. [5] (The artist was later confirmed, by cartoonist James Romberger, to have been Sy Barry.) [6] Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story was published in December 1957 in full-color with a cover price of 10 cents. 250,000 copies were printed. [4]
Instead of the typical distribution network for comics in those days, which were newsstands, pharmacies, and candy stores, The Montgomery Story was distributed by the Fellowship of Reconciliation [7] [8] among civil rights groups, churches, and schools. It was also promoted in pro-Civil Rights publications such as National Guardian and Peace News . [2] FoR staff members, particularly Jim Lawson (an African American divinity student at Vanderbilt University) [9] and Glenn Smiley, traveled through the South, giving workshops on nonviolence. They would distribute the comic to younger attendees as something to take with them and study. [5]
At some point not long after its original publication, FoR produced a Spanish version of the comic for distribution throughout Latin America. [2] Instead of using the same art as the English edition, the Spanish version is a complete copy of the original, drawn by a different artist. [2] [10] 125,000 copies were printed, but only a handful of copies of the Spanish version still exist. [10]
In 2004 comic book artist, writer and historian Tom Christopher researched the King comic and posted an article about it (which included art samples of both the English and Spanish versions) on his website. Christopher had previously documented the publication of All-Negro Comics (1947) and the Golden Legacy and Fast Willie Jackson series (1976), [11] and those articles included information on other comics such as Negro Heroes and Negro Romance . Christopher described Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story not in terms of being a rare or obscure comic but as an historic document, placing it in the political context of the times and explaining non-violence as a workable tool for social change. [12] Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story became a major attraction on his website, and the next Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide listed the book for the first time.[ citation needed ]
By 2006, there were only a handful of copies of Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story left in existence. [4] [13] That year, cartoonist/archivist Ethan Persoff scanned an original copy of the comic and posted it on his blog for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. [10] In 2008, Persoff reported that the Cairo director of the American Islamic Congress (AIC) had translated the scanned comic into Arabic and Persian. The AIC's HAMSA (Hands Across the Mideast Support Alliance) initiative printed 2,500 copies of the translated comic, distributing them throughout Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Yemen. [4] [14]
Until 2012, no history of Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story had been written, and most versions of how the comic was created listed Al Capp as the actual creator. As part of his graduate degree at Georgetown University, Andrew Aydin wrote the first long-form history of The Montgomery Story as his graduate thesis. With the help of Carlow University Professor Dr. Sylvia Rhor and comic book icon Eddie Campbell, Aydin established most of what is known about the comic's creation and use. In August 2013, Aydin published a shortened version of his thesis as the feature article in Creative Loafing's award-winning "Future of Nonviolence" issue, which was guest-edited by Congressman John Lewis and Aydin. [15] [16]
In 2013, Top Shelf Productions published an authorized re-issue of the comic, with all proceeds going to the Fellowship of Reconciliation. [5]
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 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.
Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story influenced other civil rights activists, including the Greensboro Four. [2] [17]
Thanks to the 2008 American Islamic Congress HAMSA initiative, thousands of copies of the Arabic and Persian version of the comic were distributed to democracy advocates throughout the Middle East. When the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 broke out, U.S. Representative John Lewis credited the mass-distribution of the 50-year-old comic as a contributing element in the Egyptian protests. [13] [14]
A hard copy of the Spanish edition of the comic is housed in the National Museum of African American History and Culture, part of the Smithsonian Institution. [13]
Georgia Congressman John Lewis read Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story as a teenager. The comic book demonstrated in clear fashion to Lewis the power of the philosophy and the discipline of nonviolence. Later, as he attended weekly meetings with students from Fisk University, Tennessee State University, Vanderbilt University, and American Baptist College to discuss nonviolent protest, The Montgomery Story served as one of their guides. [17] Lewis went on to become an important activist during the Civil Rights Movement.
While working on his 2008 reelection campaign, Lewis told his telecommunications and technology policy aide, Andrew Aydin, about The Montgomery Story and its influence. [17] Aydin tracked down a copy of the comic (which had long since fallen out of print), and thought that Lewis' own story would make strong material for comic book treatment:
Once he told me about it, and I connected those dots that a comic book had a meaningful impact on the early days of the Civil Rights Movement, and in particular on young people, it just seemed self-evident. If it had happened before, why couldn't it happen again? [17]
Aydin repeatedly suggested that Lewis himself write a comic book, and eventually Lewis decided to commit to the project, on the condition that Aydin write it with him. [18] The award-winning March trilogy, written by Lewis & Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell, and published beginning in 2013 by Top Shelf Productions, is the result. [19] [20]
Top Shelf's authorized re-issue of Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story won the 2014 Glyph Comics Award for Best Reprint Publication.
The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational 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, was arrested for her refusal to surrender her seat to a white person—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.
James Morris Lawson Jr. was an American activist and university professor. He was a leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the Civil Rights Movement. During the 1960s, he served as a mentor to the Nashville Student Movement and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He was expelled from Vanderbilt University for his civil rights activism in 1960, and later served as a pastor in Los Angeles for 25 years.
John Robert Lewis was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, was the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1963 to 1966, and was one of the "Big Six" leaders of groups who organized the 1963 March on Washington. Fulfilling many key roles in the civil rights movement and its actions to end legalized racial segregation in the United States, in 1965 Lewis led the first of three Selma to Montgomery marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where, in an incident which became known as Bloody Sunday, state troopers and police attacked Lewis and the other marchers.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civil rights movement.
The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park covers about 35 acres (0.14 km2) and includes several sites in Atlanta, Georgia related to the life and work of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Within the park is his boyhood home, and Ebenezer Baptist Church — the church where King was baptized and both he and his father, Martin Luther King Sr., were pastors — as well as, the grave site of King, Jr., and his wife, civil rights activist Coretta Scott King.
Seymour "Sy" Barry is an American comic-book and comic-strip artist, best known for being the artist of the strip The Phantom for more than three decades.
The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was formed on December 5, 1955 by black ministers and community leaders in Montgomery, Alabama. Under the leadership of Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Edgar Nixon, the MIA was instrumental in guiding the Montgomery bus boycott, a successful campaign that focused national attention on racial segregation in the South and catapulted King into the national spotlight.
Nathan Lee Powell is an American graphic novelist and musician. His 2008 graphic novel Swallow Me Whole won an Ignatz Award and Eisner Award for Best Original Graphic Novel. He illustrated the March trilogy, an autobiographical series written by U.S. Congressman John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, which received the 2016 National Book Award, making Powell the first cartoonist to receive the award.
Black people have been portrayed in comics since the medium's beginning, with their portrayals often the subject of controversy. Mainstream comic publishing companies have had a historical trend of being predominantly white and male, reflecting the lack of representation and inaccurate depictions of Black people in comics. The integration of black characters in mainstream and superhero comics has endured various obstacles and challenges. Critics have noted that black men and women have historically often been portrayed as jungle or ghetto stereotypes, and as sidekicks as opposed to primary characters. Occiasionally, comic book creators would lampshade stereotypes, lack of representation and emphasize social injustices. In recent years, with the integration of more Black people in mainstream comic writing rooms as well as the creation of comics on digital platforms has changed the representation and portrayals of Black people in comics and has started to reflect the complexities of Black people across the diaspora.
Nonviolent resistance, or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, constructive program, or other methods, while refraining from violence and the threat of violence. This type of action highlights the desires of an individual or group that feels that something needs to change to improve the current condition of the resisting person or group.
Glenn Smiley was a white civil rights consultant and leader. He closely studied the doctrine of Mahatma Gandhi and became convinced that racism and segregation were most likely to be overcome without the use of violence, and began studying and teaching peaceful tactics. As an employee of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), he visited Martin Luther King Jr. in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956 during the Montgomery bus boycott where Smiley advised King and his associates on nonviolent tactics, and was able to convince King that nonviolence was a feasible solution to racial tension. Smiley, together with Bayard Rustin and others, helped convince King and his associates that complete nonviolence and nonviolent direct action were the most effective methods and tools to use during protest. After the Civil Rights Movement, Smiley continued to employ nonviolence and worked for several organizations promoting peace in South American countries. Just three years before his 1993 death, Smiley opened the King Center in Los Angeles.
Toby Press was an American comic-book company that published from 1949 to 1955. Founded by Elliott Caplin, brother of cartoonist Al Capp and himself an established comic strip writer, the company published reprints of Capp's Li'l Abner strip; licensed-character comics starring such film and animated cartoon properties as John Wayne and Felix the Cat; and original conceptions, including romance, war, Western, and adventure comics. Some of its comics were published under the imprint Minoan. Some covers bore the logo ANC, standing for American News Company, at the time the country's largest newsstand distributor.
Non-fiction comics, also known as graphic non-fiction, is non-fiction in the comics medium, embracing a variety of formats from comic strips to trade paperbacks.
Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story is Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic account of the 1955–1956 Montgomery bus boycott. The book describes the conditions of African Americans living in Alabama during the era, and chronicles the events and participants' planning and thoughts about the boycott and its aftermath.
The March trilogy is an autobiographical black and white graphic novel trilogy about the civil rights movement, told through the perspective of civil rights leader and U.S. Congressman John Lewis. The series is written by Lewis and Andrew Aydin, and illustrated and lettered by Nate Powell. The first volume, March: Book One, was published in August 2013, by Top Shelf Productions. and the second volume, March: Book Two, was published in January 2015, with both volumes receiving positive reviews. March: Book Three was published in August 2016 along with a slipcase edition of the March trilogy.
Ethan Persoff is an American cartoonist, archivist, and sound artist. His work as an archivist includes a complete digitization of Paul Krassner's counterculture magazine The Realist, and the website Comics with Problems, which has been featured on multiple segments of The Rachel Maddow Show. As a comics artist, he has been published by Fantagraphics, and received media attention for his website projects, including two projects with artist and co-collaborator Scott Marshall; a downloadable Halloween mask based on Senator Larry Craig and a Tijuana Bible based on George W. Bush and John McCain. His late granduncle was Nehemiah Persoff.
Andrew Aydin is an American comics writer, known as the Digital Director & Policy Advisor to Georgia congressman John Lewis, and co-author, with Lewis, of March, Lewis' #1 New York Times bestselling autobiographical graphic novel trilogy.
The history of the 1954 to 1968 American civil rights movement has been depicted and documented in film, song, theater, television, and the visual arts. These presentations add to and maintain cultural awareness and understanding of the goals, tactics, and accomplishments of the people who organized and participated in this nonviolent movement.
United States Fellowship of Reconciliation was founded in 1915 by sixty-eight pacifists, including A. J. Muste, Jane Addams and Bishop Paul Jones, and claims to be the "largest, oldest interfaith peace and justice organization in the United States." Norman Thomas, at first skeptical of its program, joined in 1916 and would become the group's president. Its programs and projects involve domestic as well as international issues, and generally emphasize nonviolent alternatives to conflict and the rights of conscience. Unlike the U.K. movements, it is an interfaith body, though its historic roots are in Christianity. Both the FOR in the United States and similarly named organizations in other countries are affiliated with the International Fellowship of Reconciliation.