Conscience of the Congress

Drawing on interviews with Lewis and more than 250 others who knew him at various stages of his life, as well as never-before-used FBI files and documents, this biography traces Lewis’s life through the post-Civil Rights years, when he headed the Voter Education Project, which enrolled millions of African American voters across the South. The book reveals the little-known story of his political ascent first locally in Atlanta, and then as a member of Congress where he came to be known as the “conscience of the Congress.”

Thoroughly researched and dramatically told, this includes long-lost footage of Lewis himself speaking to reporters from his hospital bed following his severe beating on “Bloody Sunday” in Selma.

Review Quote

“David Greenberg’s comprehensive and compelling biography of John Lewis is a landmark book—rich and sober-minded account of one of the most consequential Americans who ever lived. With his perennial commitment to American aspiration and to bearing witness to the gap between that aspiration and tragic reality, often at fundamental peril to himself, Lewis changed a nation. Greenberg’s powerful book shows us how.” —Jon Meacham

Additional Book Details