I'm not really sure what to make of this one. It's an earnest memoir about author Mark Long's childhood in Houston in the 60's, when his dad worked as a TV reporter covering race issues and befriended the one black man who was willing to talk to him. On the one hand, the tensions between whites and blacks are starkly shown in sad and disturbing incidents, and the fact that these two men are able to bridge that gulf at all and introduce their families to each other is really touching and inspirin...

Giving away 5 copies: http://tiny.cc/rra9oSet in Houston, Texas, Silence of Our Friends takes place during a time where racial tensions are high and people's patience is at an all-time low - 1968. Jack is a local television newsman assigned to report on "racial news." After a police officer is shot and killed during a non-violent rally at Texas State University, the town is in an uproar and people start pointing fingers. Actually, all fingers are pointing to five innocent African-American men. J...

just what i was waiting for, a graphic novel about the civil rights movement framed around the white experienceto be fair, i'm sure that it's a deeply personal story for mark long, considering it's about his father and his own experience growing up in 1968 TX. maybe it's a gross kneejerk reaction on my part that i just can't seem to get over, but i cannot fathom the necessity of a whole novel, albeit a graphic one which is obviously more condensed, about white people dealing with black racism. i...

Very interesting story in American History. So much of the ignorance of today could actually be solved if we address our history.

This is an impressive graphic novel that tells the true story of the TSU Five and civil rights in Houston from the dual viewpoints of a black professor and a white television news man. The story a somewhat fictionalized account of real events in which Mark Long's father was involved. Police opened fire on the TSU dormitories, and one officer was killed; it was Long's father's testimony that demonstrated that the officer had been killed by friendly fire and helped acquit the black man who was arr...

I'm reading this in conjunction with March Vol. 3. I realize that I don't know a whole lot of what happened in the 60s, but the more I learn about this struggle, the more I am amazed by the bravery of a people who stood up and claimed the right to vote. They put their life on the line. There was a war going on in the south. People lost their lives and suffered horribly. People can be so vicious. That bothers me. Much of what I see and hear today reminds me of the hate and violence from these his...

This graphic novel is based on the author's father's experiences being a newscaster in Texas during the Civil Rights movement. Jack Long is the newscaster who films the sit-in by Texas Southern University African American students and civil right activists after the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was banned from campus. This non-violent protest became violent after an undercover policeman was shot and police stormed the men's dormitory. It was believed that the policeman was shot by s...

There are a few stories about the civil rights movement we all know, and this isn't one of them. Yet.One of the things that I found most interesting about this book (besides that Nate Powell's art is gorgeous -- as always!) is just how much of an unknown story this is. We all know about the civil rights movement -- that's what grade school was for -- but when you start reading about everything that was going on in the sixties, it turns out that Rosa Parks and sit-ins are only a part of the whole...

The title comes from Martin Luther King "In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends". Goosebumps. At the end Long explains that his book is based on his family's experience in Houston, Texas 1968-an explosive time in the civil rights movement. Certainly not a definitive book, but adds a slice of understanding for that part of our nation's ugly history, and the illustrations are terrific.

The title draws on one of Martin Luther King’s more pointed but widely quoted comments: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” But it is a barbed comment – the silence of not using and perpetuating the language of oppression or the silence in the face of that language being used. In this wonderful (and fabulously drawn) tale of the civil rights movement in Houston, we get both kinds of silence, in a story where a local but new to town televisi...

A powerful, semi-autobiographical story of racial tensions in late 1960's Dallas that raises tough question and offers no easy answers.

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."Set in a racially-divided and charged Houston, in 1968, this graphic novel follows two storylines: Jack Long, a white television news reporter, covering the the events around civil rights protests in the city, and Larry Thompson, an African-American teacher at Texas Southern University, who is an organizer of the protests. The two form an uneasy and unexpected friendship, and their paths intersect both in...

This is a very specific story. For some reason, when I was reading about this book prior to reading it itself, I had the impression that this was a more comprehensive story about the civil rights struggle in one particular locale. Instead, it's a very personal story about a couple of families and one particular trial after one particular incident. Which doesn't make it a bad book, of course - it just wasn't what I'd expected. I appreciated the depiction of what being a "race reporter" (I think I...

Impossible not to compare this to the March graphic novels - it even has the same illustrator. This is told mainly from a white perspective, and while it is interesting and also a personal story from the authors own life, it doesn't have the power or gravitas of March. Great to read alongside each other.

The Silence of Our Friends encapsulates a sympathetic white perspective of the American civil rights movement in Houston, Texas circa 1967. Taken as such, as a bystander's chronicle, it's incredibly well written and drawn. This isn't a definitive accounting of shameful American history, but rather an epilogue written by an eye witness. That is where this novel is successful. Where it falls short is in its attempt to portray a black point of view - at those points the story becomes cliché.

I'd recommend this to readers who are looking for a factual/historical account of the Civil Rights movement, but I didn't think it had the emotional investment and power of books like Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry and To Kill a Mockingbird. However, the artwork did, at times, create powerful imagery which added to the story.I did read it in one sitting, so that might have influenced my opinion. When I was done, I wished there would have been another 100 pages or so to delve into the families a bit...

Graphic novel fan? Of course. Civil rights buff? Yes, indeed. The Silence of Our Friends is a strong offering from First Second Books. It tells an important and interesting story about the struggle for civil rights in Texas, made even more engaging by its obscurity. Pair this with John Lewis's March: Book One for a well-rounded look at the civil rights movement portrayed in graphic novel format.

Every so often a book will come along that will challenge you, that will make you think, and that will hopefully leave you a bit better after you’ve read it. And this is just one such book. And yes some people are probably thinking that’s high praise for a graphic novel, but the story will give you chills within the first three pages and suck you in and not let you go until the very end of the story.It’s 1968 in Houston, Texas and the fight for civil rights is heating up. Young Mark Long’s fathe...

This is a nonfiction graphic novel about a small period of time in Houston, Texas in 1968 when life was pretty tense due to the civil rights struggle. It is the story of two men–one who is white and one who is African-American–and how they came together to try to break the race barrier in their neighborhoods. Of course there is more to the story than that. Each family is also portrayed and readers learn a bit more about the dynamics of the family behind each man.I enjoyed reading about these sto...

This is (mostly) history done right, which doesn't happen often enough in graphic novels. This is an affecting portrait of the segregated south told from both sides of the divide. This is a quick read, though it is 200 pages long, in part because so much rides on the great Nate Powell who shows rather than tells much of the story. This is a little ironic given the title comes from MLK's "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." Powell silently g...