John Lewis’ co-author talks religion, voting rights and their new graphic novel, ‘Run’

(RNS) — Famed congressman John Lewis as soon as advised his then-campaign employee Andrew Aydin how a comic book e book depicting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. performed a key position in elevating consciousness in regards to the civil rights motion. A long time later, Lewis and Aydin teamed as much as create the award-winning “March,” a graphic novel trilogy.

Now, Aydin helps shepherd “Run,” co-authored with Lewis, who died last year, and a creative crew. The brand new graphic novel, releasing Tuesday (Aug. 3), continues the story of “March” after voting rights laws was adopted however not welcomed by all.

Aydin, a white Christian with United Methodist roots, was Lewis’ digital director and coverage adviser and is co-founder of Good Bother Productions, which produces nonfiction graphic novels.

“On this e book we ask the query: Is America able to share its bounty with folks of coloration?” stated Aydin, who wrote his Georgetown College grasp’s thesis on the 1957 comedian e book about King.

“I feel for those who take a look at this by a non secular lens, it’s lengthy overdue that America ought to share its bounty with all folks, together with and most particularly folks of coloration, who’ve been neglected and left behind for too lengthy.”

Aydin, 37, talked to Faith Information Service in regards to the message of “Run,” what he discovered from Lewis and the position of the religion neighborhood in persevering with voting rights activism.

The interview has been edited for size and readability.

It has been simply over a 12 months because the demise of John Lewis, who was your mentor, your boss and your good friend. Is there a key ethical or non secular lesson from him that you just proceed to hold with you?

The lesson I maintain with me most from John Lewis and his life and his instance is that you must be persistent. It’s important to hold pushing and pulling. It’s important to hold working ’trigger the battle by no means ends. We’re solely shepherds of it throughout our time.

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The e book opens with a scene exterior a church two days after the Voting Rights Act was signed into regulation in 1965, with John Lewis and different protesters searching for to worship at a white church in Americus, Georgia. What did that timing present?

A web page from the “Run” graphic novel. Courtesy picture

Opening the e book two days after the signing of the Voting Rights Act, at a protest in Americus, Georgia, during which John Lewis was arrested, is supposed to indicate how briskly the pushback was to the progress, how gradual the implementation of those legal guidelines was at the moment and continues to be. That simply since you had a regulation on the books didn’t imply the battle was over, didn’t imply change had occurred.

The civil rights protesters had been met by a Ku Klux Klan chief who declared, “The Klan is the one salvation of the white man apart from Jesus Christ.” How would you evaluate John Lewis’ method to the intersection of race and faith with that of the Klan members?

I feel the Klan incessantly perverted the teachings of Jesus Christ, significantly the New Testomony, to their very own functions to govern folks. And it’s unlucky. John Lewis was a devotee of the social gospel, of the gospel Dr. King preached. It’s essential to know this battle as a result of we’ve seen it proceed to play out in our politics, in our non secular communities all through the nation as much as right now, and it’s little question going to proceed. I feel you hear generally folks misquoting Scripture for their very own ends. There’s an all-too-often incidence of cloaking themselves in faith because the means to deflect from the sinister motives.

The e book tells of the demise of Episcopal seminarian Jonathan Daniels and the assault on then-Catholic priest Richard Morrisroe in Lowndes County, Alabama. John Lewis expresses his frustration that “the white supremacist energy construction continued to be keen to homicide in chilly blood” to halt voting rights of Black folks. Did he have a solution for how you can counter that?

It will get again to the central battle. It’s extremely troublesome to separate the ache of seeing Black and white our bodies overwhelmed, murdered and killed due to what they consider in and due to the battle for equality. And that may damage folks’s soul. It may trigger them to develop into bitter, and it may trigger them to develop into hostile. John Lewis was at all times attempting to maintain folks collectively. He would say, “Don’t get down. Don’t develop into misplaced in a sea of despair. Be hopeful. Be optimistic.” That’s why this e book is devoted to the preachers of hope. As a result of the one solution to survive, the one solution to succeed is to take care of that self-discipline and that hope and that optimism. As a result of it’s the one factor that’s labored.

As John Lewis ultimately withdrew fully from the Pupil Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, how did his religion assist him handle the rejection from a motion he described as having been his household?

“Run” cowl. Courtesy picture

John Lewis was raised and educated within the Baptist custom. And a part of that’s understanding you’ll face good days and dangerous, you may be examined, you’ll have to endure if you wish to succeed and if you wish to assist folks.

The e book illustrates the position of non secular leaders within the battle for voting rights within the Nineteen Sixties. How do you evaluate that work to the involvement of religion leaders within the new battles over voting rights occurring right now?

The motion was led by reverends and ministers, they usually’re a mannequin for what religion leaders can do right now to ensure each citizen the appropriate to take part equally within the democratic course of. For those who’re going to be an ethical chief of your neighborhood, for those who’re going to be a religion chief in your neighborhood, which means you’ve got an obligation to make sure every particular person is counted, every particular person has a voice, every particular person is handled as a precious equal human being, with all of the rights and privileges that include it.

Like John Lewis, you specific hope in attaining the beloved community he lengthy sought. How lengthy do you suppose that may take and do you ever doubt will probably be achieved?

I consider will probably be achieved. However it could take a lifetime. It might take many lifetimes. That is the perpetual battle, and even whether it is achieved that doesn’t imply the battle is over, as a result of then you must shield it. We’ve seen that very same battle with the Voting Rights Act. Simply because it was handed and reauthorized in a bipartisan approach many instances over since, sections have been struck down, it’s not been reauthorized, we are able to’t get new laws by the Congress anymore. Once we take into consideration that within the context of the beloved neighborhood, it’s the proper instance, as a result of even when we do obtain it tomorrow, it doesn’t imply the battle is over. Which means it’s solely begun a brand new chapter.

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