It’s Martin Luther King Day, and the March Trilogy by Rep John Lewis, the last surviving leader of the civil rights movement of the 60s, is the #1 best selling book on Amazon. Isn’t that nice and fitting?
Oh what’s that you say? It’s because president elect Donald Trump called Lewis “all talk, talk, talk” in a series of tweets.
Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2017
mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk – no action or results. Sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2017
Congressman John Lewis should finally focus on the burning and crime infested inner-cities of the U.S. I can use all the help I can get!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2017
This was in response to Lewis calling Trump’s presidency “illegitimate,” which was in response to reports that Russia tries to swing the election result to Trump via hacking and perhaps ore. And that was in response to…well, here the trail grows cold, or at least extremely confused.
Lewis is extremely popular with fellow House members on both sides of the aisle, and many were uncomfortable with calling a man famous for going on a march and suffering a police beating “all talk.”
As I write this, the slipcased edition of the March Trilogy is #1, Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of a Movement is #2 (although the hardback edition is sold out) and March Book One is #3. Both the graphic novel editions appear to be in stock.Book Two and Book Three are at 18 and 17 respectively on the Amazon list.
According to Mediaite, this was an increase of 106,700% in sales for the trilogy – although how they figured that out I have no idea.
I’ve written a lot here on the Beat about March since the first volume came out, and am honored to have met Rep Lewis on two occasions. It’s a very significant work – both for comics but more importantly – MUCH more importantly – for the dialog about race in this country. David Remnick of the New Yorker had this to say about Lewis:
John Lewis represents Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District, one vote of four hundred and thirty-five. He is also the singular conscience of Capitol Hill. Lewis is a dismal institution’s griot, a historical actor and hero capable of telling the most complex and painful of American stories—the story of race. That is his job, his mission. With Dr. King and Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer and Ella Baker long gone, Lewis remains nearly alone in his capacity to tell the story of that era as a direct witness and, because of all that he has seen and endured, to issue credible moral judgment.
Only a heedless few would reject that judgment out of hand, no matter how wounding. Who would think to call John Lewis “all talk, talk, talk—no action or results”? Who would have the impoverished language to dismiss the whole of John Lewis as “sad”? As it happens, the President-elect of the United States.
Speaking of sad, whatever you do, DO NOT READ the comments on any story about this!
Anyway, why not celebrate Martin Luther King’s birthday by ordering a copy of the March Trilogy? Everyone else seems to be doing it.
“the last surviving leader of the civil rights movement of the 60s”
Hey, I’m not Jesse Jackson’s biggest fan either, but come on.
I think what you meant to say is that he’s the last surviving person who spoke at the March on Washington, on the same day as the I Have a Dream speech.
Other surviving leaders of the Civil Rights Movement include Louis Farrakhan, Benjamin Chavis, Diane Nash, Charles Evers, and James Lawson. This is not an exhaustive list.
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