Conscience of the Congress: John Lewis and the Politics of Voting at the New Haven Museum

The 2024 election is the perfect time to discuss the career of civil rights hero and congressman John Lewis, who helped bring about the Voting Rights Act and then fought for voting rights his whole career. Scholar and author David Greenberg will present “John Lewis and the Politics of Voting,” at the New Haven Museum on Thursday, October 24, 2024, at 6 p.m., preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m. 

Register for this free event here: https://qrco.de/bfGI9t

Greenberg will base his presentation on his newly released biography, “John Lewis: A Life.” Greenberg notes that Lewis’s commitment to voting and voting rights is as timely as ever, adding, “With anti-democratic forces on the rise, the vote is the way that we will rescue our democracy.” 

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, 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 will trace 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.”

With new details about Lewis’ personal and professional relationships, Greenberg’s presentation will offer an appreciation of the life and career and commitments of a man whose heroism during the Civil Rights Movement helped to bring America a new birth of freedom.