John Lewis: A Life

This biography of civil rights leader John Lewis traces his life from poverty in rural Alabama to his prominence in the civil rights movement. Lewis served as a Freedom Rider who helped integrate bus stations across the South, led the Nashville sit-in movement, and delivered a speech at the 1963 March on Washington. As the youngest speaker and chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), he expanded the organization into a major force. He survived a brutal beating at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on "Bloody Sunday." After the civil rights era, Lewis worked with the Voter Education Project to help enroll millions of African American voters across the South. He later served in local Atlanta politics and as a member of Congress, where he was respected across party lines for his commitment to nonviolent integration and justice. Greenberg's account draws on exclusive interviews with 275 people, never-before-seen FBI files, documents from numerous archives, and rare footage of Lewis speaking from his hospital bed after Selma. The book was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist and appeared on the New York Times Book Review's Top 100 Books of 2024.