JOHN LEWIS

Comprehensive biography of the late civil rights leader and legislator.

John Lewis practically emerged from the womb with his habits fully formed: at a very early age, he became entranced by books, taking as a lifelong talisman the poem “Invictus” and its closing: “I am the master of my fate, / I am the captain of my soul.” Born in 1940 to tenant farmers in southeastern Alabama, Lewis came of age as the Civil Rights Movement was gathering force; while a student at the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, he helped organize lunch-counter sit-ins and even tried to organize an NAACP chapter on campus until warned that the white churches funding the college “would never tolerate it.” Organizing voter drives during Freedom Summer 1964, Lewis practiced Martin Luther King Jr.’s doctrine of nonviolence, which he held to for the rest of his life, even as he endured beatings by white supremacists and police. He made news for refusing to give in and later, having taken the case for civil rights to first John and then Robert Kennedy, for entering national legislative politics. Greenberg allows that Lewis could be a contrarian with a radical edge; he stated at the March on Washington, for example, “We are involved in a serious social revolution.” He remained a force for progressivism in Congress—and, Greenberg notes, an early and strong ally of the LGBTQ+ community and advocate for the environment. Greenberg also points to uncomfortable moments, including Lewis’ divisive primary race against fellow Black progressive Julian Bond, whose enmity extended unto death (Lewis was not invited to Bond’s funeral). Greenberg also writes perceptively about how Lewis finessed his friendship with Hillary Clinton to become a champion of Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential race and how Lewis became a leader in the repudiation of Trump-era white supremacism before his death in 2020.

An exemplary life, and an exemplary biography that will rekindle readers’ commitment to racial justice.