Embedded Files
Comics present complex and sometimes painful information with a cinematic feel, increasing both intellectual understanding of a topic and imparting upon the reader an emotional connection to our human past. Comics in this case include autobiographical recountings of the Civil Rights Movement, as well as fictionalized dramatizations of historical events.
March
John Lewis and Andrew Aydin (Authors), Nate Powell (Illustrator)
Top Shelf Productions, 2015
The award-winning March trilogy is about the Civil Rights Movement, told through the perspective of civil rights leader and U.S. Congressman, John Lewis. Now a Congressman from Georgia, Lewis was just 23 years old when he addressed the crowd of nearly 250,000 at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. Inspired by the comic, Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, Lewis helped organize sit-ins, bus boycotts and nonviolent protests in the fight for racial and voter equality.
Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story
Fellowship of Reconciliation (Author)
Top Shelf Productions, 2013 [reprint of the original 1957 comic book]
This sixteen-page comic book is about Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It was originally published in 1957. Comics were inexpensive to print and could reach a wide range of reading levels, thus the graphic medium was viewed as an ideal tool for encouraging social change. In 1957, 250,000 copies were printed in full-color and sold for 10 cents each. Instead of selling the comic at newsstands, as was the norm at the time, the comic was disseminated among civil rights groups, churches, and schools. The comic was intended to inspire nonviolent protest and resistance and was a source of inspiration from then-teenaged John Lewis.
Nat Turner
Kyle Baker (Author and Illustrator)
Abrams ComicArts, 2018
Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion in Virginia is often considered a precursor to the Civil Rights Movement. Kyle Baker’s Nat Turner retells the story in a poignant and unique, nearly wordless, style.
Incognegro: A Graphic Mystery
Mat Johnson (Author), Warren Pleece (Illustrator)
Berger Books, 2009
Incognegro was inspired by Walter White, former head of the NAACP, who went undercover to report on lynchings and race riots in the American South during the 1910s and 1920s.
Thurgood Marshall: The Supreme Court Rules on "Separate but Equal" (A Graphic History of the Civil Rights Movement)
Gary Jeffrey (Author), John Aggs (Illustrator)
Gareth Stevens Pub Learning library, 2012
This comic showcases the landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, which was argued before the Supreme Court by the NAACP's chief counsel, Thurgood Marshall. Marshall went on to become the first African-American Supreme Court Justice in 1967.
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Connie Colwell Miller (Author), Dan Kalal (Illustrator)
Capstone Press, 2006
This comic illustrates the events surrounding Rosa Parks’ historic 1955 refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery Alabama bus to a white passenger, inspiring the black community to boycott the Montgomery buses for over a year.
Little Rock Nine
Marshall Poe (Author), Ellen Lindner (Illustrator)
Aladdin, 2008
Through fictionalized characters, Little Rock Nine tells the story of desegregating Little Rock Central High School, where in 1957, the school enrolled its first nine African American students.
Medgar Evers and the NAACP (A Graphic History of the Civil Rights Movement)
Gary Jeffrey (Author), Nick Spender (Illustrator)
Gareth Stevens Pub Learning library, 2012
This comic highlights the life of Evers, an African American civil rights activist who worked to end segregation and expand opportunities for African Americans. In 1963, Evers was assassinated by a white supremacist.
Stuck Rubber Baby
Howard Cruse (Author and Illustrator)
DC Comics, 1995
Set in a fictional town in the American South, Stuck Rubber Baby examines homosexuality and racism against the backdrop Civil Rights Movement.
Silence of Our Friends
Mark Long (Author), Jim Demonakos (Author), Nate Powell (Illustrator)
First Second, 2012
A nod to a Martin Luther King Jr. quote, "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends,” this semi-autobiographical tale is set against the backdrop of the fight for civil rights in Texas in 1967. Slightly dramatized, the narrative follows two families during an event at Texas Southern University, where students stage walkouts and sit-in protests that turned violent and resulted in the death of a police officer. Five students were charged with the murder of the slain officer, but the trial ended with the dismissal of all charges when it was discovered that the officer was accidentally shot by another officer.
Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography
Andrew Helfer (Author), Randy DuBurke (Illustrator)
Hill and Wang, 2006
This comic follows the life of Malcolm X, a human rights activist and one of the most influential leaders of the Nation of Islam (NOI). Often viewed as being at odds with the nonviolent mainstream Civil Rights Movement, Malcolm X’s views helped lay the foundation for the Black Power movement of the late 1960s and 1970s.
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