An interfaith group's 1950s MLK comic book remains a prominent nonviolence teaching tool
(RNS) — At cross-cultural gatherings in Bethlehem, West Bank, groups of children and adults turn to a 67-year-old, colorful comic book with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s image on its cover, his tie and shirt collar visible beneath his clerical robe.
As they read from 'Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story,' the group leader is prepared to discuss questions about achieving peace through nonviolent behavior.
'What are the teachings we have from Martin Luther King?' asks Zoughbi Zoughbi, a Palestinian Christian who is the international president of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and founder of Wi'am: The Palestinian Conflict Transformation Center.
'How can we benefit from it, and how do we deal with issues like that in the Palestinian area under the Israeli occupation? How to send a message of love, agape with assertiveness, not aggressive?'
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This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story.
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Zoughbi told RNS in a phone interview that the comic book, published in 1958, remains a staple in his work, which includes both English and Arabic versions. (It is available in six languages.)
Over the decades, it was used in Arabic in the anti-government Arab Spring uprisings, in English in anti-apartheid activism in South Africa and in Spanish in Latin American ecclesial base communities, or small Catholic groups that meet for social justice activities and Bible study.
It continues to be a teaching tool and an influential historical account in the United States as well.
The book was distributed in January at New York's Riverside Church and has been listed as a curriculum resource for Muslim schools. And it remains a popular item, available online and in print for $2, at the bookstore at Atlanta's Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. Store director Patricia Sampson called it 'one of our best sellers.'
The 16-page book was created by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a Christian-turned-interfaith anti-war organization. It was written by Alfred Hassler, then FOR-USA's executive secretary, in collaboration with the comic industry's Benton Resnik. A gift of $5,000 from the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Republic, a nonprofit advocating for free speech and religious liberty, helped support it.
'We are a pacifist organization, and we believe deeply in the transformative power of nonviolence,' said Ariel Gold, executive director of FOR-USA, based in Stony Point, New York. 'And where this comic really fits into that is that we know that nonviolence is more than a catchphrase, and it's really something that comes out of a deep philosophy of love and an intensive strategy for political change.'
The comic book bears out that philosophy, in part by telling the story of King's time in Montgomery, Alabama, where he was chosen to lead the Montgomery Improvement Association as Black riders of the city's buses strove to no longer have to move to let white people sit down.
Their nonviolent actions, catalyzed by Rosa Parks' refusing to give up her seat in 1955, eventually led to a Supreme Court decision that segregated public busing was unconstitutional.
The comic book ends with a breakdown of 'how the Montgomery method works,' with tips for how to foster nonviolence that include 'decide what special thing you are going to work on' and 'see your enemy as a human being … a child of God.'
Ahead of publishing, Hassler received 'adulation and a few corrections' from King, to whom he sent a draft, said Andrew Aydin, who wrote his master's thesis on the comic book and titled it 'The Comic Book that Changed the World.'
The name of the comic book's artist, long unknown, was revealed in 2018 to be Sy Barry, known for his artwork in 'The Phantom' comic strip, by the blog comicsbeat.com.
In an edition of FOR's Fellowship magazine, King wrote in a letter about his appreciation for the comic book: 'You have done a marvelous job of grasping the underlying truth and philosophy of the movement.'
The book quickly gained traction. The Jan. 1, 1958, edition of Fellowship noted the organization had received advance orders for 75,000 copies from local FOR groups, the National Council of Churches and the NAACP. An ad on its back page noted single copies cost 10 cents, and 5,000 could be ordered for $250.
By 2018, the magazine said some 250,000 copies had been distributed, 'especially throughout the Deep South.'
The comic book has led to other series in the same genre that also seek to highlight civil rights efforts, using vivid images that synopsize historical accounts of the 1960s.
'March,' a popular graphic novel trilogy (2013-2016), was created by U.S. Rep. John Lewis, along with Aydin, his then-congressional staffer, and artist Nate Powell, about Lewis' work in the Civil Rights Movement. A follow-up volume, 'Run,' was published in 2021.
'It was part of learning the way of peace, the way of love, of nonviolence. Reading the Martin Luther King story, that little comic book, set me on the path that I'm on today,' said Lewis, quoted in the online curriculum guide on FOR's website.
More recently, a new grant-funded webcomic series, 'Bad Catholics, Good Trouble,' was inspired by both the King comic book and 'March,' said creator Matthew Cressler.
Described as a 'series about antiracism and struggles for justice across American Catholic history,' it chronicles the stories of Sister Angelica Schultz, a white Catholic nun who sought to improve housing access for African American residents in Chicago, and retired judge Arthur McFarland, who as a teenager worked to desegregate his Catholic high school in Charleston, South Carolina, and later encouraged the hiring of Black staff at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
Cressler said the King comic book's continued distribution and use in diverse educational settings 'make it one of the most significant comics in the history of comics — which is something that might seem wild to say, given how when most people think about comic books, they think of superheroes like Superman or Batman.'
Though different in topic and artistic style, Cressler said, the MLK comic book can be compared to 'Maus' by Art Spiegelman and 'On Tyranny' by Timothy Snyder — more recent graphic novels about a Jewish Holocaust survivor and threats to democracy, respectively — 'as a medium through which to teach, to educate and specifically to politically mobilize.'
Anthony Nicotera, director of advancement for FOR-USA and an assistant professor at Seton Hall University, a Catholic school in South Orange, New Jersey, uses the King comic book in his peace and justice studies classes.
'People are using it in small ways or local ways or maybe even in larger ways,' he said, 'and we don't find out until after it's happened.'
Gold, a progressive Jew who is the first non-Christian to lead FOR-USA, said future versions are planned beyond the six current languages to further share the message of King, the boycott and nonviolence. She said this year, her organization is aiming to translate it into French and Hebrew, for use in joint Israeli-Palestinian studies and trainings on nonviolence, as well as for Jewish religious schools.
'Especially in this political moment, I think we really need sources of hope, and we need reminders of the work and the strategy and the sacrifice that is required to successfully meet such an intense moment as this,' she said.
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Surveillance footage shared by GHF shows crowds of onrushing Palestinians scrambling to reach the limited boxes of food as tracer fire explodes into the night sky in the distance. By sunrise, the extent of the catastrophe was undeniable. Videos captured bloodied bodies of Palestinians scattered across the sands, roughly a half mile from the food distribution center. Similar deadly incidents on Monday and Tuesday near the same site have raised further questions about whether the militarized aid initiative backed by the US and approved by Israel can deliver food supplies safely. In the subsequent episodes, the IDF acknowledged that Israeli troops had fired warning shots in the area. GHF said none of the shootings occurred within or adjacent to their distribution sites, adding that the location of the shootings was 'an area well beyond our secure distribution site.' 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'Even retreating was almost impossible, and everyone was lying on the ground unable to lift their heads because if you lifted your head, you would get shot.' As the chaos unfolded near the Al-Alam area, the GHF aid site officially opened at 5:00 a.m. Security video of the location released by the organization, which was labeled as beginning at 5:02 a.m., shows crowds of Palestinians running into the fenced distribution center. Three minutes later, in the background of the video, bursts of tracer gunfire are seen overhead, which forensics experts told CNN appear to be outgoing from an area near the distribution site. In the video, which has no audio, crowds can be seen running in another direction nearby. It is unclear whether they are running from gunfire. Around the same time back in the Al-Alam area approximately 800 meters (874 yards) away, 30-year-old Ameen Khalifa was filming as he took cover. Several videos shared on TikTok by Khalifa show groups of Palestinians lying flat on the ground and taking cover from ongoing bursts of automatic gunfire. CNN geolocated the video to the area using visible spotlights at the Egyptian border and the unfinished hospital that became an Israeli military base. Robert Maher, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Montana State University, who specializes in forensic audio analysis, examined the footage for CNN and said that the bursts of gunfire were at a rate of 15 and 16 shots per second (or 900 and 960 per minute), fired from a distance of about a quarter of a mile (450 meters). Based on the erratic nature of the sound, Maher said that the shots seemed to be spread out, fired repeatedly in one direction. 'Since the cracks are irregular, it seems more like the gunfire was being sprayed over the area.' Trevor Ball, a former US Army senior explosive ordnance disposal team member, said the rate of fire was consistent with the FN MAG, a heavily-used machine gun in the Israeli military's arsenal. The FN MAG is commonly equipped on the IDF's Merkava tanks, which several eyewitnesses said they saw open fire on the crowds. Ball told CNN he could not confirm the specific weaponry used, or who fired it, but the rate of fire, he said, indicated it wasn't consistent with machine guns used by Hamas. Ball also said the tracer fire – ammunition containing a pyrotechnic charge illuminating its trajectory – seen in the GHF's footage is consistent with the use of machine guns. 'Typically belt fed machine guns have tracer rounds inserted every few rounds. So while only 3 tracers are visible in the video, more rounds were fired.' Khalifa, who loved sports and bodybuilding, survived the harrowing night on Sunday only to be shot and killed by a drone two days later while heading to the same aid site to look for food, one of his close friends told CNN. By daylight, video footage reviewed by CNN captured the dire scene near the coast, with several bodies strewn in the sand. The Palestinian health ministry said that more than 200 casualties reached hospitals, including dozens with serious injuries. It added that all of those killed had been shot in the head or chest. The International Committee of the Red Cross said that its nearby field hospital was overwhelmed by patients, describing the carnage as the 'highest number of weapon-wounded in a single incident' since it opened over a year ago. Other dead and wounded were taken to Nasser Hospital. 'It's difficult to describe what we saw with the young and the old, there was severe injuries to the head, severe injuries to the lung,' recalled Dr. Ahmed Abu Sweid, an Australian working at the Nasser medical complex. 'There was a heavy proportion of head-targeted injuries from bullet wounds.' Doctors working at Nasser Hospital shared photos with CNN of the bullets retrieved from patients injured and killed in the attack, which weapons experts say appear to match the type of ammunition used in the Israeli military's machine guns. 'This bullet is consistent with the NATO standard 7.62mm M80, which would be fired by IDF 7.62x51mm weapons, including the Negev 7.62 and FN MAG,' Ball said of one of the images. GHF, which runs the site, insisted: 'There was no gunfire in the (distribution) center and also not in the surrounding area.' 'All aid was distributed today without incident. We have heard that these fake reports have been actively fomented by Hamas. They are untrue and fabricated.' The IDF said allegations that Israeli soldiers fired on Gazans near or within the aid distribution site were 'false reports.' It added: 'Findings from an initial inquiry indicate that the IDF did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site and that reports to this effect are false.' An Israeli military source told CNN that IDF troops did fire warning shots towards suspects approaching their position approximately a kilometer (1,100 yards) away from the aid distribution site in an incident that happened several hours before the site opened. Ihab Musleh told CNN he had taken his two young sons along to the aid distribution center. When he told them to stay put at a nearby hill as he went inside the site, he heard more gunfire and rushed back out. Yazeed, 13, was shot in the stomach by gunfire from an Israeli tank and survived his injuries, according to his dad. 'He was waving his hands towards the tank and within seconds, he was hit with gunfire and fell to the ground,' Musleh said, speaking to CNN from the hospital where his son was being treated. Other witnesses told CNN they were either injured or saw intense gunfire in the area after the aid site opened. Mohammad Abu Rezeq was shot in the stomach upon arriving at Al-Alam where he said Israeli forces were deliberately targeting the crowd. 'I have seen a lot of soldiers in this war. When they want to clear an area or warn you, they shoot around you. But yesterday, they were shooting to kill us,' Abu Rezeq said. CNN asked the IDF about the claim from witnesses that its troops were firing directly at crowds, shooting to kill, but it gave no further comment beyond its published statement. The chaos in the early hours of Sunday morning was not an isolated incident. In consecutive days since, Palestinians attempting to reach the GHF's aid distribution sites have come under fire by the Israeli military. After the intense gunfire near the Al-Alam roundabout on Sunday, GHF's Facebook posts included updated maps of the safe route for the following days. The new maps included a large, red stop sign at Al-Alam. On Tuesday, nearly 30 people were killed and dozens wounded while making their way to the aid sites in Tel al-Sultan in Rafah, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health and Nasser Hospital. The Israeli military said that its forces opened fire multiple times after identifying 'several suspects moving toward them, deviating from the designated access routes.' 'The troops carried out warning fire, and after the suspects failed to retreat, additional shots were directed near a few individual suspects who advanced toward the troops,' the IDF said in a statement, adding they were looking into reports of casualties. While the Israeli military has acknowledged firing warning shots in the area three days in a row, posts from GHF's Facebook page show the organization works in close coordination with the IDF to establish safe, defined routes. GHF was set up amid Israeli accusations that Hamas is stealing aid in Gaza and profiting from sales, though Israel hasn't presented any evidence publicly to back up the claim. UN aid groups, such as UNRWA, typically check identification and rely on a database of registered families when distributing aid. But GHF is not screening Palestinians at aid distribution sites, despite Israeli officials saying that additional security measures were a core reason for the creation of the new program. UN aid agencies have criticized GHF's aid mechanism, saying it violates humanitarian principles and raises the risks for Palestinians. Criticism has been mounting against both Israel and GHF after chaos broke out last week when tens of thousands of starving Palestinians arrived at two new food distribution sites. The UN's humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, was scathing in his assessment to the UN Security Council late last month. 'It restricts aid to only one part of Gaza, while leaving other dire needs unmet,' he said. 'It makes aid conditional on political and military aims. It makes starvation a bargaining chip. It is cynical sideshow. A deliberate distraction. A fig leaf for further violence and displacement.' Video edited by Oscar Featherstone in London. Tareq Al Hilou in Gaza contributed to this report.
