--- title: The Birmingham Church Bombing in John Lewis' Graphic Memoir description: The Congressman recounts the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in his new graphic memoir 'March: Book Three' canonical: https://time.com/4433549/john-lewis-march-book-three-excerpt/ author: John Lewis article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-03T23:19:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:38.546Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Read an Exclusive Excerpt From John Lewis' Graphic Memoir on the Birmingham Church Bombing og:description: "How could our quest for human dignity spawn such evil?" og:url: https://time.com/4433549/john-lewis-march-book-three-excerpt/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte240299e1c280865/6988a0f4f887dc8811e96ef8/march-book-cover.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:image:alt: march-book-cover og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read an Exclusive Excerpt From John Lewis' Graphic Memoir on the Birmingham Church Bombing twitter:description: "How could our quest for human dignity spawn such evil?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte240299e1c280865/6988a0f4f887dc8811e96ef8/march-book-cover.jpg?branch=production ---  # Exclusive Excerpt From John Lewis' Memoir: The Birmingham Church Bombing by [John Lewis](https://time.com/author/john-lewis/) ## John Lewis Aug 3, 2016 11:19 PM UTC by [John Lewis](https://time.com/author/john-lewis/) ## John Lewis Aug 3, 2016 11:19 PM UTC _When the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., was bombed in 1963, John Lewis, now a Georgia Congressman, was one of the region’s most prominent civil rights leaders. He heard the news on the radio and rushed to Birmingham, where four girls had been killed in the blast. The tragic incident became a galvanizing moment in the ongoing struggle. He recounts the episode in his new graphic memoir,_ [March: Book Three](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1603094024/?tag=timecom-20), _created with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell, out this week. The book marks the third and final volume in the series, which debuted in 2013._ ### March: Book Three  ### 1  ### 2  ### 3  ### 4  ### 5  ### 6  ### 7  ### 8  ### 9  ### 10  ### 11  ### 12  ### 13  _From_ [March: Book Three](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1603094024/?tag=timecom-20) _by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell, from Top Shelf Productions._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4433549/john-lewis-march-book-three-excerpt/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4433549/john-lewis-march-book-three-excerpt/"},"headline":"Exclusive Excerpt From John Lewis' Memoir: The Birmingham Church Bombing","datePublished":"2016-08-03T23:19:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:38.546Z","description":"\"How could our quest for human dignity spawn such evil?\"","url":"https://time.com/4433549/john-lewis-march-book-three-excerpt/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte240299e1c280865/6988a0f4f887dc8811e96ef8/march-book-cover.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"John Lewis","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/john-lewis/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte240299e1c280865/6988a0f4f887dc8811e96ef8/march-book-cover.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"march-book-cover","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4433549/john-lewis-march-book-three-excerpt/","name":"Exclusive Excerpt From John Lewis' Memoir: The Birmingham Church Bombing"}}]}] ```