John Lewis: A Life: Historian David Greenberg’s definitive biography of the civil rights icon

Name: John Lewis: A Life: Historian David Greenberg’s definitive biography of the civil rights icon
Start: 2024-11-20T19:30:00-04:00
End: 2024-11-20T21:00:00-04:00
Location: WBUR CitySpace

Schedule

Wed Nov 20 2024 at 07:30 pm to 09:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

WBUR CitySpace | Brookline, MA

Darryl C. Murphy, host of The Common, moderates a conversation with historian David Greenberg about “John Lewis: A Life,” the first definitive biography of the Civil Rights icon who would become second only to Martin Luther King, Jr. in his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. In the book, Greenberg traces Lewis’ life through the post-Civil Rights years and reveals the little-known story of his political ascent first locally in Atlanta, and then as a member of Congress. There he would earn respect on both sides of the aisle for the sacrifices he made on behalf of nonviolent integration in the South and come to be known as the “conscience of the Congress.”
Copies of the book will be available for purchase from our bookstore partner Frugal Books. Greenberg will sign following the conversation.
CitySpace Tickets:
Premiere: $30.00 (includes reserved seating in the front of the theater)
General: $20.00
BU Faculty/Staff: $15.00 (must present a valid BU ID upon arrival)
Student: $10.00 (must present a valid student ID upon arrival)
Ways To Save:
WBUR’s Legacy Circle, Murrow Society, Sustainers and Members save $5.00 on premier and general tickets to this event. To apply the discount to your ticket purchase online, you’ll need to enter a promo code. You can get your code by emailing [email protected].
About “John Lewis: A Life”
A comprehensive, authoritative biography of Civil Rights icon John Lewis, “the conscience of the Congress,” drawing on interviews with Lewis and approximately 275 others who knew him at various stages of his life, as well as never-before-used FBI files and documents.
Born into poverty in rural Alabama, Lewis would become second only to Martin Luther King, Jr. in his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. He was a Freedom Rider who helped to integrate bus stations in the South, a leader of the Nashville sit-in movement, the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington and the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which he made into one of the major civil rights organizations. He may be best remembered as the victim of a vicious beating by Alabama state troopers at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where he nearly died.
Greenberg’s 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. Tapped to be a part of the Democratic leadership in Congress, he earned respect on both sides of the aisle for the sacrifices he had made on behalf of nonviolent integration in the South and came to be known as the “conscience of the Congress.”
Thoroughly researched and dramatically told, Greenberg’s biography captures John Lewis’ influential career through documents from dozens of archives, interviews with hundreds of people who knew Lewis and long-lost footage of Lewis himself speaking to reporters from his hospital bed following his severe beating on “Bloody Sunday” in Selma. With new details about his personal and professional relationships, “John Lewis: A Life” is the definitive biography of a man whose heroism during the Civil Rights movement helped to bring America a new birth of freedom.