John Lewis In Search of the Beloved Community

Raymond Arsenault, Jaime Lincoln Smith

eAudio - 2024

For six decades John Robert Lewis 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 biography of Lewis, Raymond Arsenault traces Lewis's upbringing in rural Alabama, his activism, 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. and other civil rights leaders plan the 1963 March on Washington, where he spoke at the Lincoln M...emorial. He was instrumental in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and he advocated for racial and economic justice, immigration reform, LGBTQ rights, and national health care. Arsenault recounts Lewis's lifetime of work toward one overarching goal: realizing... more