Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story |
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Cover of Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Fellowship of Reconciliation |
| Format | One-shot |
| Genre | non-fiction |
| Publication date | December 1957 |
| Number of issues | 1 |
| Main character(s) | Martin Luther King Jr. Coretta Scott King Rosa Parks Mahatma Gandhi |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Alfred Hassler and Benton Resnik |
| Artist(s) | Sy Barry |
Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story is a 16-page comic book. It tells the story of important figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. It also covers the Montgomery bus boycott. The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR USA) published it in 1957.
This comic teaches about nonviolence. It explains how to use peaceful ways to make change. Even though the big comic companies didn't notice it, The Montgomery Story was shared widely. Civil rights groups, churches, and schools used it. It helped inspire peaceful protests across the Southern United States. Later, its ideas spread to places like Latin America, South Africa, and the Middle East. More than 50 years later, this comic inspired the popular March comic book series. This series was written by Georgia Congressman John Lewis.
Contents
Creating the Comic Book
Why the Comic Was Made
The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR USA) helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott. This boycott was a big success. After it ended, two FOR USA members had an idea. Alfred Hassler and Rev. Glenn E. Smiley thought a comic book could share the boycott's story. They wanted to reach many people, including those who didn't read much.
Dr. King himself supported the comic book. He even gave some ideas for it. The group got money to create the project.
Who Made It?
The famous cartoonist Al Capp admired Dr. King. His studio helped produce Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story for free. Alfred Hassler and Benton Resnik wrote the story. The artist was Sy Barry.
The comic came out in December 1957. It was in full color and cost 10 cents. About 250,000 copies were printed.
This comic wasn't sold in regular places like newsstands. Instead, the Fellowship of Reconciliation shared it. They gave it to civil rights groups, churches, and schools. They also promoted it in newspapers that supported civil rights.
FOR staff members, like Jim Lawson and Glenn Smiley, traveled through the South. They taught workshops about nonviolence. They gave the comic to young people to take home and learn from.
Spanish Version
Later, FOR made a Spanish version of the comic. This was for people in Latin America. The Spanish comic had new drawings, not the same as the English one. About 125,000 copies were printed. Today, only a few copies of the Spanish version still exist.
The Comic's Return to Popularity
Rediscovering the Story
In 2004, comic book expert Tom Christopher researched the King comic. He wrote an article about it online. He showed pictures from both the English and Spanish versions. Christopher explained that the comic was an important historical document. He showed how nonviolence could bring social change.
Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story became very popular on his website. It was even listed in a comic book price guide for the first time.
Sharing It Again
By 2006, there were only a few copies of the comic left. That year, cartoonist Ethan Persoff scanned an original copy. He put it on his blog for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
In 2008, Persoff shared more news. The American Islamic Congress (AIC) had translated the comic into Arabic and Persian. The AIC printed 2,500 copies of these translated comics. They shared them in many countries in the Middle East.
Learning Its History
For a long time, no one had written the full story of how the comic was made. Many thought Al Capp was the main creator. In 2012, Andrew Aydin wrote about the comic for his college degree. He found out most of what we know about the comic's creation. In 2013, Aydin published a shorter version of his work.
In 2013, Top Shelf Productions printed a new, official version of the comic. All the money from sales went to the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
What Happens in the Comic
The comic starts with a quick summary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life. It covers his education up to 1957.
Then, the story moves to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1954. An African American man named Jones talks about life there. He describes the unfair Jim Crow laws. These laws kept Black and white people separate and treated Black people unfairly.
The comic shows the events of the Montgomery bus boycott. It highlights the important roles of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. In the story, King teaches about nonviolence. He stays peaceful even when his own home is bombed during the boycott.
The last part of the comic explains the "Montgomery Method" of nonviolence. It shows how this method was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. It also gives practical advice on how to use nonviolent actions to make change.
The Comic's Impact
Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story inspired many civil rights activists. This included the Greensboro Four.
Thanks to the 2008 American Islamic Congress effort, thousands of Arabic and Persian comics were shared. These went to people who wanted democracy in the Middle East. When the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 happened, U.S. Representative John Lewis said the comic helped inspire the protests.
A physical copy of the Spanish comic is kept at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. This museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution.
The March Trilogy
Georgia Congressman John Lewis read Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story when he was a teenager. The comic clearly showed him the power of nonviolence. Later, he met with students to discuss peaceful protest. The Montgomery Story was one of their guides. Lewis became a very important activist in the Civil Rights Movement.
In 2008, Lewis told his aide, Andrew Aydin, about the comic. Aydin found a copy of the old comic. He thought Lewis's own story would make a great comic book.
Lewis agreed to write a comic book, but only if Aydin wrote it with him. The result was the award-winning March trilogy. Lewis and Aydin wrote it, and Nate Powell drew it. The first book came out in 2013.
Awards
The new, official version of Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story won an award. It received the 2014 Glyph Comics Award for Best Reprint Publication.
