A Journal of Research in Africana Studies
Freedom: Volume 2
Cartooning the Beloved Community: Martin Luther King Jr. and Political Personhood in “The Montgomery Story”
By Magana Kabugi, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Literature, Fisk University
Published in Freedom: Volume 2
Keywords
Comics, graphic novels, civil rights, citizenship, activism
Abstract
As a visual and textual media, comics have played a significant role in ingraining anti-Blackness into the cultural psyche of the United States. Racist caricatures of African Americans in comic strips and graphic novels have helped to reinforce the notion that Black people are unworthy of the promises and benefits of citizenship as outlined in the United States Constitution. Black cartoonists who were aware of comics’ power to preserve racist hegemonic structures also knew that the medium could help to tear down those same barriers. This article explores how Black cartoonists were instrumental in constructing and mobilizing a conceptual community that connected Black readers to one another and to a wider concept of American nationhood and citizenship in service to the marginalized and dispossessed of society. Of specific interest is Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, a 1957 comic book which King himself was instrumental in conceptualizing and editing. Told through the eyes of an ordinary, yet determined working-class Black man, the book uses a colorful graphic-novel format to educate readers about effective nonviolent protest. The article discusses not only the role of comics in shaping political discourses about citizenship and belonging, but also illuminates the creative role that King played in enabling the book to respond to the moment.