Bloody Sunday is a term used to refer to the conflict that took place on Edmund Pettus Bridge during the first Selma to Montgomery March on March 7, 1965. State troopers attacked the peaceful marchers, and activist Amelia Boynton was left unconscious on the bridge. The picture of her was publicized, and the resulting outcry further mobilized the movement. Although it is not called by name, the prologue to March: Book One depicts the events of Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1954. The judges in this case unanimously agreed that “separate but equal” was not constitutional and that schools could no longer segregate based on skin color. Lewis describes hearing about this case on the radio and his excitement that he would soon be able to attend the local white school only to discover the case did not change his current situation or educational experiences.

Martin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery Story is a 15-page comic book published in 1957. This book describes the history surrounding King as well as Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott.