First you march, then you run. From the #1 bestselling, award-winning team behind the March trilogy comes Run, the conclusion to their groundbreaking graphic novel series—now in paperback

“In sharing my story, it is my hope that a new generation will be inspired by Run to actively participate in the democratic process and help build a more perfect Union here in America.”
—Congressman John Lewis

To John Lewis, the civil rights movement came to an end with the signing of the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965. But that was after more than five years as one of the preeminent figures of the movement, leading sit-in protests and fighting segregation on interstate busways as an original Freedom Rider. It was after becoming chairman of SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and being the youngest speaker at the March on Washington. It was after helping organize the Mississippi Freedom Summer and the ensuing delegate challenge at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. And after coleading the march from Selma to Montgomery on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

All too often, the depiction of history ends with a great victory. But Lewis knew all too well that victories are just the beginning. In Run, Lewis and longtime collaborator Andrew Aydin reteamed with Nate Powell—the award-winning illustrator of the March trilogy—and were joined by L. Fury, who made an astonishing graphic novel debut to tell this often-overlooked chapter of civil rights history.

Picking up after the signing of the Voting Rights Act, Run opens with Lewis and his colleagues facing another arrest as the Ku Klux Klan prepares their largest hooded march in years. Meticulously researched and brought to life in stunning visual detail, Lewis recounts the highs and lows of a movement fighting to harness their hard-won legal protections to become an electoral force as the Vietnam War consumes the American landscape—all while the forces of white supremacy gather to mount a decades-long struggle to destroy the dream of the “Beloved Community” that Lewis, Dr. King, and so many others worked to build.

Urgently relevant for those who seek to understand American political conflict, Run has become required reading alongside the March trilogy—the first and only graphic novel to win the National Book Award.