David Greenberg is the author of the new biography John Lewis: A Life. Greenberg's other books include Republic of Spin. He is a professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University.
Q: Why did you decide to write a biography of congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis (1940-2020)?
A: John Lewis was one of the most important leaders of the civil rights movement of the 1960s who did not have a biography.
When I first had the idea to write this book, in 2018, Lewis was often in the news – he had become a moral voice and defender of democracy in a time of political reaction and confusion. His longevity and his long service in the Congress had elevated him in the popular consciousness, and with the passing of so many other heroes of the movement, he loomed as a colossus. And yet no one had told his story.
For myself, I am a political historian with training also as a political journalist, and I thought I was in a good position to write this biography, which would combine the tools of the historian (mastering the literature on civil rights, Black politics, etc.; working in the archives) with those of the journalist (extensive interviewing, understanding the contemporary relevance of a story).
And although I’d written several works of political history, I’d never written a book in which race lay at the center of the story. But since race and the struggle to overcome racism are quite central to the American story, I thought this would be a good way into that important subject.
Q: The review of the book in The New York Times, by Brent Staples, says, “This biography sets a new standard by giving Lewis’s post-civil-rights story the depth of attention it deserves — and showing how our mild-mannered seminarian submerged his pacifist tendencies enough to succeed in the bare-knuckled world of electoral politics.” What do you think of that description?
A: Never argue with a rave review! I'm grateful to Brent Staples for his generous and complimentary words. But since you ask, I think Staples correctly captures an evolution I describe in Lewis, in which he learned the game of politics and learned it well.
Beyond that, there are two slightly different questions one might see implied in the assertion.
First, did Lewis submerge his pacifist beliefs in the interest of political success? I would say that he mostly did not, although I might say he learned to balance pacifism with other moral imperatives.
For example, he continued to vote routinely against military appropriations and wars. But he also came to support humanitarian military interventions in Somalia (to stop famine) and Bosnia and Kosovo (to stop genocide).
Second, did he evolve from the mild-mannered seminarian of the 1960s into a tough political animal? The book shows that he always had a fierce, even stubborn streak. Sometimes that was a boon politically, but he also learned when it could be a disadvantage. In his first political office, on the Atlanta city council, he alienated potential allies by being too moralistic.
So, again, I would use the word balance. He learned to balance his moral righteousness with a healthy sense of pragmatism. If you’re going to enter the political arena, you should do so with the intention of succeeding, and Lewis learned how to do so.
Q: How would you characterize the dynamic between Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr.?
A: King was everything to Lewis: inspiration, role model, teacher, mentor, friend, father figure. So many of Lewis’s guiding ideals were also King’s: the commitment to tearing down segregation, the philosophy that fused Christian social gospel teachings with Gandhian nonviolence, the belief that the movement must be an interracial one, and much more.
Lewis occasionally had his differences with King but he would never criticizer him publicly. Others in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) came to dislike King and his methods and even mocked him and derided him. Lewis never did.
Interestingly, even as Lewis became chairman of SNCC he also served on the board of King’s organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
Q: How would you describe Lewis’s legacy today, and what do you think he would say about today’s politics?
A: Lewis’s legacy remains alive, even if it is embattled. The belief in the equality of all of us remains a foundational principle of our politics, even if some politicians don’t seem always to respect it. From both the left and the right, there is an attack on interracial cooperation, but it too continues to have many champions.
We don’t know what any dead person would say about times in which he was no longer alive, and it’s not a good idea to ventriloquize the dead. But we do know what Lewis thought of Donald Trump and his brand of politics, which I spell out abundantly in the book.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Happily, there has been a lot of attention given to the book, so mainly I’ve been touring and speaking about the book and about John Lewis. I’ll figure out a next book project soon.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: There is a lot more to know! It is hard for me to sum up briefly how rich and surprising I found John Lewis’s life to be. I learned so much about his surpassing courage and fortitude during those years of the early 1960s, about the trauma of his ouster from SNCC and the lasting impression it had on his life and career, about the role of his wife, Lillian, about whom little had been written, about his personal side, whether it was his love of dancing or his tremendous collection of African-American art.
Although it sounds like promotion, I'm sincere in saying that I can only direct readers to the book, which I hope does justice to John Lewis in all his fullness.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
No comments:
Post a Comment