A heart-rending biography of an iconic civil rights legend. It is very difficult to not write a hagiography of Lewis and Greenberg doesn’t hide his admiration, but at the same time he doesn’t ignore the difficult and at times wrongheaded decisions Lewis made during his life. The author does a yeoman’s job of laying out the early life and the harrowing later years Lewis lived through. To Greenberg’s credit he details the complexity of the civil rights movement and the raucous behind-the-scenes maneuvering inherent in such a monumental endeavor. One unfortunate incident is the struggle for the leadership of SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). Lewis is blind-sided by militant activist Stokely Carmichael who wrests control of the organization during a late-night meeting. Years later after entering the political arena Lewis has another dreadful moment during the 2008 presidential primary between Barrack Obama and Hilary Clinton. Lewis has a tight connection with the Clintons and endorses her – but backlash from constituents and the threat of a primary challenge to his Congressional seat force Lewis to awkwardly backtrack and switch sides. These two examples (among others) illustrate how hard it is to be an uncompromising human in a brutal dog-eat-dog world. Greenberg’s sympathetic yet critical biography is the perfect antidote for our tumultuous time.
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