Similarities Between Lewis And Aydin

Many people go through life not thinking twice about what drinking fountain they can use, or what bathroom they can use, or even what school they can go to. For most of the United States’ history people had to face these problems of segregation and racism. John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, authors of the March trilogy, write about Lewis’ life and growing up in a segregated and racist country. He grew up in rural Alabama where his parents always taught him not to say or do anything because if you do you will just cause problems and bring danger to yourself and others. However Lewis was far from similar to his parents. He did not just want to sit back and see if the country would change. He soon finds out as a young boy that religion and helping others
Day and night he read that book. He eventually started preaching. He preached to the chickens on his farm.. Lewis states “They [the chickens] would bow their heads, they would shake their heads, but they would never quite say Amen.” In other words Lewis believed that they understood and felt his words that he was saying to them. This event started a foundation for building his religious beliefs and morals. The word of God brought light into his life while he was surrounded by the dark hate of the world.(see Figure 1). This is how Lewis eventually saw the Civil Rights Movement. He saw the hate that people had for people of color and the light the movement would bring. He wanted to help make a change in society even as a young child. Lewis wanted to help people through the teachings from the bible. He made the bible present in his life through the movement by keeping his morals and ethics of nonviolence as an important piece to being successful and gaining respect. Although many people doubted him as a leader both religiously and humanitarianly, he never gave up and continued to practice and fight for what was right. However eventually it brought him to his first
Many white supremacists and police officers beat Civil Rights activists. Lewis was among the activists. After they were beat many arrests were made. Lewis was arrested this day. Although he was arrested this made him even more excited and motivated about what he was standing up for. Lewis stated “I felt free, liberated--like I had crossed over.” In other words Lewis felt like he finally belonged and was accepted. He also felt like he was finally doing something to help someone. By getting arrested it showed that he wanted to make a change in the country and he was willing to sacrifice his own life to do something good for other people. This was also a huge turning point because it allowed him to breakaway from the do and say nothing code of conduct he followed when growing up. This started his journey of being a leader for the Civil Rights