Conversations from the Cullman Center: John Lewis: David Greenberg with Nicholas Lemann

A major biography of civil rights icon John Lewis, celebrated as “the conscience of Congress,” offers profound insights into his significant role in American history.

Born into poverty in rural Alabama, John Lewis rose to prominence in the civil rights movement. As one of the original Freedom Riders, he joined the fight to integrate bus stations across the South. Lewis was a leader in the Nashville sit-in movement, delivered a historic speech at the 1963 March on Washington, and transformed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) into a major civil rights organization. His legacy endures through the harrowing events at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where he survived a brutal beating on “Bloody Sunday.” Weaving together hundreds of exclusive interviews, never-before-seen FBI files, and archival documents, David Greenberg follows the long arc of Lewis’s influential career, from his leadership in the Voter Education Project to his political ascent—first locally in Atlanta and then as a respected member of Congress. John Lewis stands as the definitive biography of a man whose heroism during the civil rights movement paved the way for a new era of freedom in America.

David Greenberg worked on John Lewis: A Life during his 2021-2022 Fellowship at the Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. He will discuss his book with award-winning author and journalist Nicholas Lemann.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

David Greenberg is a professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University and a frequent commentator on historical and political affairs. He is the author or editor of several books on American history and politics, including Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image and Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency. Formerly acting editor of the New Republic and then a columnist for Slate, Greenberg now writes regularly for Politico, Liberties, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. His work has also been featured in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, the Wall Street Journal, and numerous academic journals. He has received fellowships and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Leon Levy Center for Biography.

Nicholas Lemann has worked as a reporter and editor at the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and the New Yorker (where he has been a staff writer for twenty-five years), and contributed to many other publications. From 2003 to 2013, he was dean of Columbia Journalism School, where he continues to teach. His books include The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America, a New York Times bestseller and winner of the 1991 Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Transaction Man: Traders, Disrupters, and the Dismantling of Middle-Class America; and, most recently, Higher Admissions: The Rise, Decline, and Return of Standardized Testing. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society, the New York Institute for the Humanities, the Society of American Historians, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
 

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