In December of 1957, a comic book titled “Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story” was published by The Fellowship of Reconciliation. It was considered by many to be a sort of “how to peacefully demonstrate” manual and covered the events of the 1956 bus boycott in Montgomery which were led by Martin Luther King, Jr. It also tells the story of how Ghandi released India from British rule through the use of peaceful demonstrations. The comic book is considered scarce by collectors and is included in several special collections at libraries around the country including Morehouse College, The Smithsonian Institute and Stanford university. The short 14 pages within this comic are considered by many to be an important catalyst in the success of the Civil Rights Movement.
In 2008, this very same comic was translated into Arabic and Farsi by HAMSA and AIC. According to their website, “Several thousand copies were printed in Cairo, as part of an effort spearheaded by AIC-Egypt director Dalia Ziada… They are being distributed across the Middle East.”
The comic book ends with a section on how peaceful demonstrating can work to make big change. One has to wonder if this republished and translated comic book was in part responsible for the incredible changes seen in Egypt over the past few weeks.
