John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community (Black Lives)

by Raymond Arsenault (Author) For six decades John Robert Lewis (1940–2020) was a towering figure in the U.S. struggle for civil rights. As an activist and progressive congressman, he was renowned for his unshakable integrity, indomitable courage, and determination to get into “good trouble.” In this first book-length biography of Lewis, Raymond Arsenault traces Lewis’s upbringing in rural Alabama, his activism as a Freedom Rider and leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, his championing of voting rights and anti-poverty initiatives, and his decades of service as the “conscience of Congress.” Both in the streets and in Congress, Lewis promoted a philosophy of nonviolence to bring about change. He helped the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. plan the 1963 March on Washington, where he spoke at the Lincoln Memorial. Lewis’s work as a civil rights leader led to frequent arrests and beatings, most notably when he suffered a skull fracture in Selma, Alabama, during the 1965