About the unit
March is a three-part non-fiction comics series that documents the life of John Lewis, U.S. Representative currently serving from Georgia. His life of service follows the arc of the civil rights movement, as he participated in the Montgomery bus boycott, was arrested more than 40 times, and eventually was an architect and speaker at the 1963 March on Washington. He is considered one of the biggest leaders of the Civil Rights Movement from the mid-sixties, one of the Big Six, in fact. Moving back and forth from past to present, the books cover his life, leading up to the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009. His life is inspiring, and he epitomizes the ability of one man to make a difference, and an even greater one when united with others of the same passionate mission.
During this unit, students will develop visual and written literacy skills, tidy and expand their knowledge of American civil rights history, explore the possibility of comics promoting social action and justice, and create frames and comics of their own that reflect their knowledge of skills and analysis from the unit’s work. We will also read primary documents in the form of both Lewis’s speech from the DC march and the original comic that instructed their practice of nonviolence, Martin Luther King and the Montomery Story. The Resources section will include other possibilities like video, photographs and websites for creating comics. All of the included reading and activities will take place over one six-week semester in a class that meets two or three times a week. More time will go into the first book in the series as we learn what we can about context and genre. Although in my use it will be supplementary to English classes, this unit will satisfy Oklahoma high school English language arts objectives as well as Common Core objectives for middle to lower high school grade levels (documented later).
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