Essay On John Lewis Turning Points

Have you ever received a Christmas present that had an impact on you? What about a trip? Has a sermon inspired you to make change? Ever been arrested? In the March Trilogy by Lewis and Aydin, John Lewis had events that happened to him and made him more like how he already was, these turning points in his life reinforced his character. The gift if the Bible that he received from his uncle on his fourth birthday reinforced his Christianity belief. The trip he took to Buffalo, New York gave him the realization that the people living there did not live in segregation and made him determined to make a change back home. Listening to Dr. Martin Luther King’s sermon on the radio opened his eyes to actually being able to make a change. His first arrest made Lewis more determined to make a change.

In March book 2, author and activist, John Lewis, delivered a speech on August 28, 1963. Before John Lewis delivered his speech, there was a lot of ciaos occurring backstage about revising Lewis’ speech. Mr. Randolph wasn’t pleased with the way John Lewis worded parts of his speech and demanded for him to change it. After Lewis negotiated with Mr. Randolph, Lewis was still content with the arrangement of his speech. Lewis confronts his sentiments to the people regarding racial inequality. He emphasizes on the unfair acts that are implemented among the African American working class. John Lewis states, “While we stand here, there are sharecroppers in the Delta of Mississippi who are out in the fields working for less than three dollars a day, twelve hours a day” (Lewis Aydin 166). In this statement, Lewis explains his reasoning for assembling his speech. His objective was to arouse the public on the realism of the nation’s unjust behavior towards African Americans. Lewis explains the march on Washington is occurring because blacks don’t receive the same wages as whites. Lewis declares, “We do not want our freedom gradually, but we want to be free now” (Lewis Aydin 169). He proclaims that African Americans have been fighting for their freedom long enough and they are not willing to be patient. With his skillful use of appeals, Lewis applies powerful logos to illustrate racism, emotional pathos to connect with the audience, and ethos to appeal to the segregation and discrimination towards African Americans.

During this time, Troy State had a strict “No blacks allowed” policy. John Lewis on the other hand felt as though attending that school was very important to him. After months of hearing nothing back, he decided to write a letter to Martin

John Lewis was one of the most notably influential leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, SNCC. SNCC was founded in the 1960s in Releigh, North Carolina and initially consisted of black students as its members (Murphree 2006:11). The first members of this organization made use of nonviolent ways of protests such as sitting in and occupation of certain public places. The organization was successful in making other people aware of the injustices that black people were usually exposed to. Moreover, SNCC supported more nonviolent protests such as the Freedom Rides in 1961 and the March on Washington in 1963 which paved the way for the amendment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

He expresses his feelings, “I loved the new ideas college was introducing me to, in religion and philosophy, but I couldn't stop thinking about the social gospel. Here I was reading about justice when there were brave people out there working to make it happen. I started to feel guilty for not doing more. I became restless” (65). This shows the amount of ambition that John Lewis portrays as he doesn’t want to settle for less. He mentions his solution, “I thought about Troy State, just a few miles from my parents’ home, where no black student was allowed. So I applied as a transfer student” (66). This another example of the discrimination conflict, as there were no blacks allowed at Troy State. After not hearing back for months, he wrote a letter to Martin Luther King

We all have different events or actions that impacted us differently and as for John Lewis, his actions had impacted the world. In the book “March” by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, there were many turning points that lead Lewis to where he is today. Lewis grew up in Pike County, Alabama where his father bought a farm. As a child, Lewis grew a very close attraction to the chickens finding great love and friendship for them. Lewis achieved a lot just from the compassion he found in the chickens. This made an impact on him as he grew up. Without the chickens Lewis would not of grown such st From the moment he received his first bible to the moment he attended his very first sit-in and being sent to jail. All these turning points in his life lead him to speak in Washington D.C. These made a huge impact for him to change the world. All three of these turning points are connected together to make him a stronger person. Growing up the most important impacted would be Lewis’ very first bible he received from his uncle which led him to do great things in the world.

John Robert Lewis was born just outside Troy,Alabama on February 21. Lewis often helped his parents with sharecropping, though he led a happy childhood. In 1957, Lewis learned of the so called “Sit-ins” and felt obliged to join and help remove the racial segregation greatly separating the country. Lewis said “It was not enough to come and listen to a great sermon or message every Sunday morning and be confined to those four walls

If one hears the name, Martin Luther King Jr., they often associate this well-known man to his well-known “I Had A Dream” speech. Martin Luther King Jr. was the leader of the African-American civil rights movement. While to many he is most known as just a ‘dreamer’, in Gospel of Freedom, Jonathan Rieder enlightens all on how Martin Luther King Jr. was much more than his “I Had A Dream” speech. It is a surprising thing that nowadays, when being taught throughout primary and secondary school, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter” from Birmingham jail was hardly talked about in historical contexts, or at the very least mentioned. Was it deemed not as important to show all sides of this famous activist? Martin Luther King Jr. has always been seen as this peaceful yet passionate leader fighting for justice. His “Letter” that he drafted shows a more furious, but still passionate side to him. A side that this “Letter” also helped show how the civil rights movement really worked.

An aspect often overlooked by the majority of the population is equality and freedom. Many people do not take the time and appreciate the struggles faced to provide these freedoms because they happened so long ago; irrelevant in the current world. However, the Civil Rights Movement was a vital turning point in not only the history of African Americans, but also everyone in the United States. The book written by Andrew B. Lewis, The Shadows of Youth, examines the adversities throughout this time; however, he did not focus on the older generation, but rather the youth. Highlighting the lives of seven influential leaders of this youth movement, Lewis was able to take an issue lingering in the shadows and bring it to the light. This story starts

Mahatma Gandhi died nearly seventy years ago, and Jesus Christ died over two-thousand years ago; yet their powerful message still continues to inspire lives. One example of someone who was deeply touched by the teaching of Gandhi and Christ is John Lewis. In March: Book one, written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, we can clearly see how Lewis incorporated Christianity and Gandhi's ideas of peaceful protest into the civil rights movement. The book tells an eventful story of John Lewis' life. As Lewis grew up, his faith strengthened and he began involving himself in the civil rights movement. He played a major role in desegregating department store lunch counters by using Gandhi and Christ's ideas of loving your enemy. Although significant people John Lewis had met, such as Martin Luther King, clearly played a key role in developing his character, it is evident throughout the trilogy that the people who impacted John Lewis the most were those he had never met. The teachings of Jesus Christ and Mahatma Gandhi appear to have positively influenced Lewis’ life in ways no one he met had.

Over the past three or four weeks I have come to learn a great deal more about Dr. Martin Luther King and all the amazing work he had done to fight for the right of African Americans. I do not know what it is about him, but when I reflect on his life, his legacy, his beliefs, his writings, and his speeches I feel like maybe one day I could make at least a small difference in the world. When I reflect on the things above I notice two features that make Dr. Martin Luther King’s such a big part in the Civil Rights movement. The first of which is his sheer determination, and of course the second one is his public speaking ability and his ability to connect social gospel and rhetoric to help move crowds.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s writing possesses the ability to vitalize and vex the reader; his text animates and agitates his reader. Passion, which motivated King to write, flows through his writing into the heart and bones of his literary patrons. His ability to inspire precipitated him into a key leadership role of the Civil Rights Movement. His vehement devotion to justice and his pure and true love of people galvanized Martin Luther King Jr. to risk his life repeatedly for the equal treatment of his black brothers and sisters. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr. profoundly delineates the squalid reality of being maltreated and the

Congressman John Lewis is well known for his leadership in civil rights movement. “Martin Luther King and the Montgomery school” was the book that inspired John Lewis to write March trilogy. Lewis was highly influenced by this book at his young age. Lewis with his co-author Andrew Aydin presented this novel as a comic to grab attention of today’s young generation.

Two individuals, meeting for the first time, sit on opposite sides of a coffee table in the dimly lit library of a beautiful home in the south. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Ellison seek to find common ground and a personal understanding of each other based on the shared experiences of Black American men. Their conversation centers on the plight of Black Americans whose voices were silenced, whose existence ignored, and whose value was to easily disregarded and dismissed. In an attempt to succinctly identify the purpose of his Letter From Birmingham Jail, Dr. King set his coffee mug on the table, leaned forward and said, ‘My letter to those eight, white clergymen was a direct, express attempt to elicit empathy.’

Everyone has experienced the results from an unfair situation, usually people want to change this through their actions. This can be exhibited in the book March as John Lewis uses his past experiences to protest the African American people’s wrong treatment. Throughout the book the life events of John Lewis are displayed and it is clear to see that these events changed him. Even though many of the events in his life may have altered John Lewis, the turning points in John Lewis' life helped make him a more inspired man and more influential in the civil rights movement. John Lewis receives a Bible, goes on to be inspired by MLK’s speech, gets arrested for his protests, and stops going home to his family as much all of which motivated him to help and support the civil rights movement.