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Nicholas Motamed
Professor Herman
English 1T
June 23
Goals for Freedom with Weapons of Nonviolence

In March: Book Two by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and illustrated by Nate Powell,

there was a civil rights movement that faced a lot of segregation and discrimation that caused

people to stand up such as John Lewis, who had a dream that meant giving up ”everything in

order to bring justice and freedom to the Deep South''(30). John Lewis believed in this dream and

that drove him to join the Freedom Riders, a group of people who stood up against segregation in

the South. This dream unified them in the movement that drove them to stand up for inclusion,

despite the hurdles of overcoming violence and goal compromising. The Freedom Riders use

peaceful revolution,and integrity to defeat the enemy of hate and save people from their hatred

so their dream, conviction and action for peace and justice comes true.

The Freedom Riders had made progress in their movement, but were met by an increase

of violence and cruelty that can literally or emotionally, or mentally beat out their goal of

inclusion in the south.The Freedom Riders were met with intense violence in Montgomery

including a disturbing image of a mom encouraging her son to “ get [that man] in his eyes” and

lots of intense beatings and insults(75). A large group of people, including families and their

sons and daughters attacking the riders with zero restraint like a pack of wolves. The riders and

their friends were all being beaten with their bloody injured or dead bodies on the street, there

were too many to count(79). Some riders ran or drove away from the danger but the trauma of

what they witnessed continued to haunt them. Despite the riders goal of inclusion, they were

attacked by families misguided in their belief that they should attack African Americans . The
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families taught their children to discriminate and hurt others which increased the violence and

how inhumanly cruel they were treated. This is one of the most intense scenes where the riders

are attacked very cruelly to the point a lot of people got badly hurt or died! Seeing families like

this mom teaching her son to hurt others shows how inhumanly people became and how fighting

for them were individuals who ran or drove away.

John Lewis and the Freedom Riders were very peaceful even when attacked and would

not stop their firm belief in peaceful marching, however there were Riders who allowed their

training to be”eroded” and compromised to use anger and violence to get their freedom. This

was one of the biggest conflicts within the Freedom Riders group.For instance,during a

demonstration a man named Stokely Carmicheal talked back angrily outright to a man, who was

discriminating against him by yelling ”What are you looking at?! “(112). Stokely who does not

think it is a “responsability to use morals and spiritual reclamations” to someone he

perceives as a “racist thug”(112). It is very understandable that he and also a bunch of others

feel since they are fed up with getting beaten, disrespected and stomped over to the point they

lose sight of the dream. This leads to fighters like Stokely to goal compromise to use negative

hate and behavior against people who are picking on them. While Stokley and other Riders'

ideas and reasons for defending themselves was something I can sympathize with, their morals

were misguided for they can not consider themselves fighting for peace if they are being violent

for in the eyes of others they are the violent ones and bullies too. True there were peaceful ways

to defend themselves but in this movement when their pacifist principles were compromised they

lost everything they were standing for in the first place.

Although big chaotic separation hurt the Freedom Riders, they used their weapon of

nonviolence to spread inclusion with compassion. The Riders and their followers aimed to never
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use violence no matter what “hostilities the Freedom Riders had to face” without responding in

kind”(36). A little girl one day stood bravely in the street when a man in a “car, which

purposely tried to crush her'' but despite the scary site the girl stood her ground with her hands

wide open instead of running away(121) . While it was a frightening site to see someone

willingly stand in front of a car, knowing she could have been hurt or killed, It is very brave that

she used nonviolence to stand up against the bully in the car, instead of defending herself (121).

For if violence was used against violence then the Freedom Riders would not be any better

than the ones who are discriminating against them . Using peaceful actions against segregation is

important for if they used violence that would defeat the purpose of having a goal of peaceful

inclusion in the south, for using violence would have contradicted the dream.

Freedom Riders were mistreated a lot in the South causing people to get discouraged that

their dream of inclusion would never come true, but the majority of the Freedom Riders stuck

with their dream with great integrity and faith believing that if they continued fighting and

believed it would happen. Many of the Freedom Riders had to go through hardships, including

going to jail where many Riders got tortured, beaten, mocked, and locked away like animals in a

zoo getting tortured(97-109). While they were afraid and tempted with discouragement just like

all of them, Lewis and the Riders with him in jail chose to be happy and confident that many

more people will stand up with them and will ”see 'em in [jail] with us before too long” (98). It

takes a lot of integrity to stand up and give them firm belief that their movement will get more

people to speak up for their cause of spreading inclusion to the South. The happiness and joy

they have in jail is because they are convinced they will get through this and believe that

whatever happens they are willing to sacrifice themselves for their freedom. Integrity is vital to

standing firm in making a difference and willing to get up when hardships happen.
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Freedom fighters believed in the goal, were firm in their convictions and took actions in

many ways during the peaceful revolution. Their dream for inclusion in the south is similar what

people are hoping for now with the chaos going on in our world that is making this a dark world,

but as Martin Luther King Jr said” we [dare] to imagine about a new America( and a new

world), A better American( and World)”(172) that everyone desires to have. But if we want to

see an everlasting change in America and the World then we need to have a new type of

revolution of devoted love, compassion , hope, faith, empathy and friendship that makes the

cornerstone of our morals and what the world stands for. For no one is perfect so their is always

going to be hardships unless we love everyone with our hearts by showing and teaching theses

values including compassion and love on everyone in the world because I strongly believe if

everyone goes out of themselves to love others with the gratitude they been given their will be no

more hate and we will save lives. Even though we are racist or those we have anger in our hearts

we should show compassion for if we treat everyone like we were treated then we would extinct

hate from our life. Love and compassion and everything else I said are much more vital now then

ever before more than regulations, rules and enforcements, which have value, but can not impact

someone’s live, if we need to change the world then fill in love and all the other values as our

foundation that is vital to save the world!

Works Cited

Lewis, John, et al. March, Book Two. Top Shelf Productions, 2013.