John Lewis: The Last Interview
The second-hand status of Southern Black folk was evident and unconcealed when John Lewis was a boy. Even the public-school textbooks he was given were second hand. “I don’t think I had much choice but to resent it,” he said in one of the interviews collected here. Lewis grew up to lead the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He served 17 terms before his death in 2020 and became an elder statesman of civil rights—a movement threatened with losing rather than gaining ground in the last years.
In that final interview promised in the book’s title, Lewis stressed the importance of voting, “the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in a democratic society. And it’s why people didn’t want people of color to come register to vote because you have power that you can use.” He added, “We must never ever give up, or give in, or throw in the towel.”
