Autographed by Lewis

I loved this book! I only regret that I never got meet him and tell the things we had in common., like raising and loving chickens. I have followed the Civil Rights movement for a very long time and read many books about the leaders but his memoir was so complete that I added missing pieces to my memories and readings.

I love that he did not forsake the teaching of Ghandi, that he always stuck to the idea of non-violence. He appreciated people who they really were rather who they pretended to be. He was courageous for finding and being true to himself. He was wise in many ways and he chose the perfect woman for him to propose to. He realized that injustice and degradation were even worse than poverty. He had great empathy for the mistreated, abused and demeaned.

I found his book to be engrossing and illuminating. I hope that you too, take the time to read this important book about the movement, this man and history. ( )

This well written and compelling memoir of one of the most important members of the Civil Rights Movement, and the representative for Georgia's 5th congressional district — including most of the City of Atlanta, my former home — covers his birth to a family of uneducated sharecroppers in Troy, Alabama — my mother's home town — to his surprising election to Congress in 1986, upsetting his longtime friend Julian Bond, who, like Lewis, was one of the founding members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), one of the most important civil rights groups of the 1960s, along with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and, to a lesser extent, the NAACP.

In "Walking with the Wind", Lewis gives a detailed account of his modest upbringing in a medium sized segregated town in the Deep South in the 1940s and 1950s, in a stable family who was poor but not impoverished, as no one went hungry or suffered from want. As he later described in the award winning graphic novel March: Book One he first gained a love of the ministry by preaching to the chickens in his household, whose care was entrusted to him, which was enhanced in 1955 after he heard a sermon given by a young minister from Atlanta who led a church in nearby Montgomery, Alabama. Dr King's message of nonviolent protest against racial prejudice, the church's key role in the successful Montgomery bus boycott, and the brutal murder of Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi that year deeply affected and influenced him, and despite his parents' fears and desires for him he decided to become an active participant in the nascent civil rights movement. He was an excellent student in the segregated schools he attended in Troy, but they provided him with a second class education and did not adequately prepare him to enter Morehouse College in Atlanta, where Dr King received his bachelor's degree, so he accepted a scholarship to the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee.

Nashville, a relatively tolerant city with several Black colleges and universities, served as the most important site where students engaged in successful sit ins and other peaceful protests against segregated lunch counters, movie theaters and other venues in 1960, and John Lewis was a key participant in the Nashville Student Movement. This movement directly led to the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which quickly became the most progressive and active of the major civil rights groups, to the dismay of the far more conservative and cautious NAACP headed by Roy Wilkins, and the SCLC led by Dr King. Lewis became a key organizer of and participant in the 1961 Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation on interstate buses and stations in the Deep South, and the violent response by local police and members of the KKK gave the Civil Rights Movement greater attention by the public and by new president John F. Kennedy, and led to greater participation by students of all races throughout the country.

Lewis was elected chairman of the SNCC in 1963, which provided the young but battle tested man a greater voice and influence in the movement, as one of the “Big Six” civil rights leaders. He first came to national prominence as a result of the fiery speech he gave during the March on Washington later that year, and enhanced his importance after he led the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965, which included the “Bloody Sunday” assault on peaceful marchers that directly led to the passage of the groundbreaking Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In the mid 1960s the Civil Rights Movement became less peaceful, less disciplined, and more separatist, as Whites and Jews were discouraged from participation. As part of this shift Lewis was removed from his leadership position in SNCC, and he struggled to find his place in the ascending Black Power struggle led by Stokely Carmichael and the Black Panthers. Ultimately he entered the political arena, which culminated in his successful campaign to win the race for Representative of Georgia’s 5th Congressional District after the 1986 election, a position he held until his death from pancreatic cancer in 2020.

"Walking with the Wind" is a valuable contribution to the narrative about the Civil Rights Movement, told by one of its key leaders, as it provides insights into the key participants, decisions, and internecine conflicts amongst the leaders and their followers, which is compelling and quite readable. Unfortunately, but very much in keeping with other biographies and memoirs of key male participants in the Civil Rights Movement, the invaluable contributions of women such as Diane Nash, Fannie Lou Hamer and Ella Baker are given short shrift by Lewis, and for that reason I’ve knocked down my rating of this book by half a star. Reading Walking with the Wind inspired me to start the biography "Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision" by Barbara Ransby, in order to get a more complete analysis and understanding of the movement. ( )

A clear and riveting first person account of the civil rights movement that I highly recommend to everyone. It's especially relevant right now, and it really gave me a lot of perspective. John Lewis has lived an amazing life, and he continues to engage in the good struggle in Congress. Stick this in your list of to read Non-Fiction when you need a boost for sure. ( )

4.5 stars. Having found the graphic novel, March, to lack sufficient detail, I wanted to read more about John Lewis. This personal memoir of the civil rights movement was authored by John Lewis, who played a central role as a Freedom Rider, head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and lifelong activist. John was raised in a large cotton-picking family in Alabama, and was fortunate to earn a college scholarship to become a preacher and move to Nashville. In college, John quickly became enamored with non-violence and was involved in many protests in this progressive Southern city, eventually moving on to Atlanta and Washington D.C. where he dedicated himself to improving the lives for all blacks, with no concern for his own safety. John was one of the original Freedom Riders, led the march in Selma, where he was badly beaten on the Edmund Pettus bridge. He speaks candidly about his views of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, including the profound impact of their assassinations and his own efforts to enfranchise black voters, including passing the Voting Rights Act, were nothing short of historic. ( )