This isn't a traditional cradle-to-grave biography (which can sometimes make for an intimidating tome), but a powerful, readable account of John Lewis's lifelong commitment to civil rights, social justice, and political renewal — and how his faith compelled that commitment in philosophy and action. In the author's words, it's "an appreciative account of the major moments of Lewis’s life in the movement, of the theological understanding he brought to the struggle, and of the utility of that vision as America enters the third decade of the twenty-first century amid division and fear." Because of Lewis's extensive involvement from such an early age, this makes an excellent refresher/introduction to the Civil Rights Movement.

Content notes: racist violence, terror, and obstruction

His Truth Is Marching on: John Lewis and the Power of Hope
By Jon Meacham, John Lewis (Afterword)

One of humanity’s immovable bastions of hope and future progress has moved on to the next part of his journey. . .John Lewis. The author of His Truth Is Marching on: John Lewis and the Power of Hope has provided us a way to review this man’s life journey and goals within the context of his time, experiences and those carried forward by his people as they raised him up. At the end of his life, he has blessed us as a nation, made us better as a people, whether we accept that or not – it is simply truth. Having a means to better learn his story, his struggles, failures and victories, his method of engaging in good trouble unfolds in this book. The afterword of the book is authored by John Lewis, himself. It is a confident and hopeful push to all readers to continue to create that Beloved Community, find the way forward which will be unique to each of us.

All politics aside, we have all been loved by him. He left his words as evidence of his faith in us to bring about the best good from the choices we have before us. Jon Meacham’s book gives a worthy reflection of this important man, reminding us that not only are the shining stars important. . .the ordinary stars, taking extraordinary measures to ensure everyday progress for all, are just as important and shine just as long.

A Sincere Thanks to Jon Meacham, Random House and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review.

If anyone deserves the Jon Meacham treatment, it is John Lewis. This is a brilliant, moving, powerful elegy on the late Congressman’s full life that also serves as strong encouragement to follow Lewis’s example in a world that desperately needs his compassionate power.

His Truth is Marching On is a biography of Representative John Lewis that focuses on his childhood and work as an activist during the civil rights movement. The book highlights a number of lesser known civil rights organizations and leaders who influenced Lewis so it serves not only as a biography of Lewis but also as an overview of the civil rights movement.⁠
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His Truth Is Marching On is strongest when Meacham focuses on Lewis, his faith, and his commitment to nonviolence. As a person of faith I was deeply moved by reading about the religious roots behind Lewis's lifelong activism. I took more notes about those passages in the book than I have about any book I've read in recent memory. ⁠
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The book is slightly less compelling when it focuses more broadly on the civil rights movement and less on John Lewis himself. That said, I was glad to learn more about civil rights leaders like James Lawson, Ella Baker, and Diane Nash, and about Highlander Folk School. ⁠
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My one real complaint with the book is that it ends so abruptly with the assassination of Robert Kennedy. I would have loved to read about how Lewis made the transition from being an activist skeptical about the power of government to a Congressman. ⁠Also, and understandably, Jon Meacham is not exactly writing through an objective lens. But then again, I can't think of anyone who'd be able to write about him in a way that wasn't positively beatific.
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That said, this book is a must-read for admirers of John Lewis, folks interested in learning more about the civil rights movement, and history buffs in general.⁠
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We lost a hero this summer in the death of Congressman John Lewis. We may remember the last photos of him, days before his death on Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, DC, one more expression of the arc of a life spent in the hope that the nation would recognize the gift that his people are and that one day, his hope of Dr. King’s Beloved Community would be realized. We might also remember the image of him being clubbed to the ground on the approaches to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, a day he nearly lost his life. There is so much that came before, and between these images. In this new work, historian Jon Meacham offers a historical account coupled with Lewis’s recollections, that helps us understand not only the heroic work of this civil rights icon, but the wellsprings of motivation that spurred his long march.

Meacham begins with his ancestry, great-grandchild of a slave, child of sharecroppers in Troy, Alabama, growing up deep in the Jim Crow South in segregated schools, where a look, an inappropriate word might cost one’s life if you were black. Lewis was a child of the black church who knew he wanted to be a preacher, and practiced on the chickens on his parents farm. His faith, and early uneasiness with the inequities that did not measure up to the American dream meant “that the Lord had to be concerned with the ways we lived our lives right here on earth, that everything we did, or didn’t do in our lives had to be more than just a means of making our way to heaven.” Then he heard the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. on the radio and heard someone who gave voice to his growing calling and conviction., leading to pursuing seminary studies at the American Baptist Seminary in Nashville.

Meacham accounts how this led to sit-ins at restaurants, the Freedom Rides, the Children’s Crusade and the March on Washington, where he gave one of the most impassioned speeches as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), refusing to back away from criticism of the Kennedy administration. Meacham describes the death of Kennedy, the civil rights leadership of Johnson, and Lewis’s growing exile from SNCC, from those like Stokely Carmichael who had tired of the slow progress of non-violent protest, that left him to go to Selma alone rather than with the SNCC. Again and again his principles led him to get into “good trouble.”

Through it all, including the deaths of King and Bobby Kennedy, he persisted, through multiple beatings and arrests. Much of this work chronicles his years in the civil rights movement, leaving the final chapter to summarize his years in Congress and legacy. What Meacham focuses on throughout are the theological convictions, rooted in Lewis’s belief in the Spirit of History, his faith in a loving God, and his belief that America’s ideals would prevail over America’s failings. Second is a focus on Lewis’s bedrock conviction of pursuing non-violent resistance rooted in a belief of the dignity of all people in the image of God, even one’s enemies, developed from the Bible, Dr. King, James Lawson and the Highlander Workshops, and the principles of Gandhi. The narrative is one of how Lewis “walked the talk” bearing numerous beatings without retaliation, sacrificing his leadership for his principles. Finally, Lewis lived toward a vision of America as Dr. King’s “Beloved Community.” From marches and activism to his years in politics, Meacham shows how he strove for the peace with justice that would overcome divisions between black and white. Meacham gives John Lewis the last word in his afterword:

“We won the battles of the 1960’s. But the war for justice, the war to make America both great and good, goes on. We the People are not a united people right now. We rarely are, but our divisions and our tribalism are especially acute. Many Americans have lost faith in the idea that what binds us together is more important than what separates us. Now as before, we have to choose, as Dr. King once put it, between community and chaos.

John Lewis never lost faith that what binds us together matters most and never stopped pursuing community rather than chaos. Meacham’s book leaves us the question of what will we believe and pursue in the days ahead. How we answer that may be decisive not only for our lives but also for our country.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Jon Meacham is one of our great historians, and he worked closely with civil rights lion John Lewis on this last book to be completed before his death. What a gift for us to have to be able to read and learn about Lewis' life and legacy. It's a book that gives readers the gift of John Lewis' words and is essential reading for anyone wanting to learn more about an American hero.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

Jon Meacham writes that the late John Lewis was an American saint and was a "founding father to todays American ethnicity."
After reading "His Truth is Marching On", I would have to say that Meacham has made a strong case to support this.
John Lewis was born into a deeply segregated South. In his first thirty years on earth he would participate in Freedom Rides, Sit-ins and Marches. All in pursuit of racial equality and justice. Not only did he participate in the March on Washington, he was the final speaker at that mass gathering. In 1965, he marched across the Edmund Pettis bridge into the armed Alabama troopers. For his bravery he received a blow to the head, stitches and a concussion.
Lewis was unwavering in his determination to seek justice. The civil rights movement to him was "on the right side of history."
It is difficult to understand how Lewis could keep fighting for justice while not succumbing to hate. He is quoted as saying, "you have to do more than just not hit back. You have to have no desire to hit back. You have to love the person who is hitting you."
It is clear that fellow Southerner, Meacham admires John Lewis, The two men share a love of the Christian faith. Meacham feels that Lewis "embodied the traits of a saint in the classical Christian sense of the term." After reading this book, you may also believe this. With grace and love this man marched with determination on faith in pursuit of civil justice.
This is not a biography but a review of Lewis' life on the front line of the fight for civil rights. Read it - then have a good discussion or two or three with those around you.
I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. #NetGalley #HisTruthisMarchingOn

His Truth Is Marching On combines careful reporting, historic photographs, and detailed notes and appendices, but the book ultimately shines brightest as a story of how one man made a difference by believing in justice and offering hope for a nation in difficult times. See full review at chapter16.org

I received an early e-copy of His Truth is Marching On from Random House through Netgalley. This book is out now.

Throughout my reading of this nonfiction book, I had difficulty putting into words what standard genre and narrative style this book falls into. Jon Meacham in his author’s note, however, does an excellent job of capturing this book’s purpose: “This is not a full-scale biography. It is, rather, an appreciative account of the major moments of Lewis’s life in the [Civil Rights] movement, of the theological understanding he brought to the struggle, and of the utility of that vision as America enters the third decade of the twenty-first century amid division and fear.” In this part-biography, part-history-of-the-Civil-Rights-Movement, and part exploration of America’s twenty-first-century theological underpinnings, Meacham attempts to capture the impact John Lewis had on the Civil Rights Movement and America more broadly, an impact I personally feel has not yet been fully realized. The work Lewis has done in the last sixty years has shaped America in so many ways and I can only imagine his legacy and the impact he had on our country will continue to grow moving forward.

It should be noted (as Jon Meacham did in his author’s note), as I was not aware of this until I began the book and was initially put off by this, that this is not comprehensive by any means. Meacham has been quite selective in his telling of Lewis’s life and the work of the Civil Rights Movement, focusing on key events in which Lewis played a large role (the Freedom Rides, the March on Washington, Bloody Sunday). Meacham does provide miniature biographies of several major figures involved on both sides of the movement, including Martin Luther King Jr., Diane Nash, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, George Wallace, and Eugene “Bull” Connor, which may be useful to some readers less familiar with the movement and the important historical figures. Throughout the text, Meacham relies heavily on quotations, giving this book a bit of an oral-history feel.

Meacham, due to his shared interest with Lewis in Christian theology, also focuses much of his attention in this book on the Christian theological underpinnings of the Civil Rights Movement, which—despite that fact that Lewis attended seminary school and MLK Jr. was a Reverend—is not often something I have experienced in learning about the movement, so I found those aspects of this text to be quite fascinating, especially when contrasted to the non-Christian leaders of the movement, such as members of the Nation of Islam like Malcolm X.

All in all, I enjoyed learning more about John Lewis and getting a refresher on some of the key elements of the Civil Rights Movement, but I do wish this had been a bit more comprehensive and/or focused.

HAPPY PUB DAY to His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope by Jon Meacham, with Afterword by John Lewis

Full disclaimer, I’ve not yet finished this book. I was hoping to have it read by pub day, but it is VERY comprehensive, which is a good thing! This book has a 4.80 star rating on Goodreads and it’s well deserved.

John Lewis contributed to this intimate account of his life’s story, along with dozens of other people interviewed by Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning editor of Newsweek. From a very young age, Lewis had an aversion to the “way things were” in the Jim Crow South. He believed he was called by God to make the world a better place. In pursuit of his goal, he was beaten, blasted with a fire hose, jailed, sentenced to serve hard time, and spied on by the FBI. (And I’m only 1/3 finished.)

A lot of things in this book really resonated with me. First, I did not realize that JFK and Robert Kennedy tried to stop the March on Washington, preferring to fight for civil rights in Congress and the courts. They thought it was “bad optics” before the phrase was invented (and JFK was worried about reelection). And they had a basis for this belief: a 1964 survey (now, keep in mind that this was AFTER the church bombing that killed four little girls) found that 74% of Americans thought that the nonviolent demonstrations hurt the cause of civil rights. Only 16% approved!!!

Sounds familiar, right? So many Americans refuse to see the need behind Black Lives Matter and taking a knee. Yet, in the future we will see them as pivotal moments in the continued fight for equality for ALL Americans. I’m glad John Lewis lived to see a brand-new generation take up the mantle of nonviolent protest.

This book goes on sale today! I highly recommend that everyone add it to their #antiracistreads bookshelf!
I’ll finish up with a couple of quotes from Lewis:

"When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something."

"Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America."

Thank you to #netgalley for the ARC of this book.

This is not only a biography of John Lewis, but a lesson in American history focused on the civil rights movement. I was introduced for the first time to the names and stories of American heroes (that I should have already been familiar with), such as: Autherine Lucy, Recy Taylor, Ella Baker, Diane Nash, Fannie Lou Hamer, Amelia Boynton, Viola Liuzzo, and many others. Their work and sacrifices deserve our respect and our pride and our remembrance and I'm so thankful to the author for educating me on the life of John Lewis and his friends and colleagues. Their stories shouldn't stay in the past, they are more relevant now than ever.⠀
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"If the young people of the South -- young Black people, young women, young men -- could change the world then, then we can do it again, now." - John Lewis⠀
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A heavy focus of the book is on Lewis's Christian faith and how it informed his nonviolent approach. I appreciated how the author also balanced Lewis's perspective with those of his contemporaries such as Malcolm X, leading the reader to understand the validity of the principles behind these different approaches towards gaining freedom. ⠀
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Lastly, I wanted to share that the photos in this book are worth the purchase price alone. If you're on the fence about voting in November, seeing these images of our citizens bravely risking their lives for their right to simply vote will give you that extra nudge.⠀

It is disgraceful what this country has put the Africa American community through and not just during the 60’s. Even to this day we are still fighting the racism that was first birth with this country. We fought a civil war, we passed amendments to our Constitution, enacted laws too protect voter rights but most of all people have given their lives for this great cause. John Lewis was a man driven by his beliefs and convictions. The terrible treatment that he and others had to endure is not only hard to read about it is also hard to realize that it is still going on and yet it is right in front of us each and everyday.
Before reading this book I knew a little about Mr. Lewis because of his relationship with MLK Jr but not as much as I should have which this book clearly remedies. I wish this book could be read by everyone; of course, the problem is that those who should read about the struggle, hardships and violence that he and those around him endured will mostly likely not be read by those that need to read it.
I came away from this book with a much better understanding of the time period, the struggle and the man. I have to admit I would have given up many times and moved some where else. What Mr. Lewis went through clearly showed that he was a strong man with great convictions and moral authority. We are all less without him.

This was a timely read for me. I was left in awe of John Lewis's life, his conviction, and his determination. I learned more about the movement from this book than I did in school and I really appreciated that.

When John Lewis spoke, you listened. Every word and nuance was meaningful. The details of his life, presented beautifully by Jon Meacham, confirm John Lewis as a founding father of our Civil Rights’ movement.

Lewis was committed to non-violence and was a student of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lewis devoted his entire life, body and soul, to raising others up. He refused to focus on negatives and instead saw hope in every situation. Even when threatened with violence, even when beaten, he refused to walk away from hope.

I was not sure that anyone could effectively describe the inspirational impact that John Lewis had on those around him. But Jon Meacham wrote another exceptional biography that clearly captured the importance of John Lewis’ life in our times and for our future, and Meacham captured who Lewis was in his everyday life.

I strongly recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing the ARC in exchange for an objective review.

I am not sure I can get through this review without crying again; I am not sure that people fully realize what we, as a nation, and BIPOC people especially, lost when John Lewis died. He was a nonviolent fighter up until the end and the loss of him is just so huge. And as I was reading this book, it was made so apparent to me over and over and over again what a huge voice for the Civil Rights Moments and Black Lives Matter he was and what his death means to those groups and to the people [BIPOC] involved.

As Mr. Meacham states, this is not a definitive biography of John Lewis' life. I think that would take a book much larger than this. Because, even though he was a quiet and nonviolent man, his voice and life was large. But this IS an excellent biography of John Lewis' time and life in the Civil Rights Movement, and all he faced and dealt with and persevered from. Some of these stories will make you sick. Some will bring you joy. Some will make you sadder than you ever thought you could be. And they are ALL stories that you will never forget and will quite possibly will change your life forever. I know I will never be the same.

This was so well done and in my opinion, should be required reading. I will be shoving this at everyone I know so they too can read about this lovely quiet man who helped change America.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Random House for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"I couldn't accept the way things were, I just couldn't." -- John Lewis

A few pages into this book, I thought I wouldn't be able to finish it, much less give it five stars. Indeed, I felt a bit... bamboozled... by the heavy religious content of the first section of the book, for which I did not think the blurb prepared me. While I have nothing against Christian books, I was not raised in that faith, and don't tend to read anything marketed as Christian literature. But the first section of this book is thick with Christian philosophy. I plodded through it, irritated by what seemed false marketing, and ready to call it quits. I'm glad I didn't.

While at first a bit of a slog, this book grew on me. The religious content is front loaded and theoretical discussion about whether John Lewis is a saint give way to earthly anecdotes of his times preaching to chickens as a child (including accidentally drowning one in a "baptism" only to have it come back to life).

"Hate is too heavy a burden to bear." -- John Lewis

The story of John Lewis is one of love. Lewis couldn't live in a country where black citizens didn't have equal rights, but he couldn't hate his oppressors either. He was looking for justice, not revenge. Lewis was a true believer in nonviolent protest: "You have to do more than just not hit back. You have to have no desire to hit back. You have to love that person who's hitting you."

And hit him, they did. John Lewis was arrested over 40 times, spending time in the country's most brutal prisons. His skull was cracked open in the march from Selma and he almost died. But, still, Lewis remained unwavering in his commitment to nonviolence, even as it became less popular amongst his fellow Freedom Riders.

This book is focused almost entirely on Lewis's time as a founding father of our nation's Civil Right's movement in the late 1950s and 1960s. It's not a topic I've studied much, and I found much of the content in this book enlightening. The writing, although technically proficient, isn't always riveting. This isn't a page turner. However, I'm glad I read it.

John Lewis composed the afterword and leaves us with the last word: "We've come too far, we've made too much progress as a people to stand still or slip back. You have to believe that. You have to believe it. It's all going to work out."

This book is an excellent complement to the new documentary movie “John Lewis: Good Trouble” especially if, like me, you have to experience things at least twice before you actually remember them.

They are not the same, nor is one based on another. The movie contains more interviews with people who worked for or knew him while he served in Congress. The book dives in greater detail into Lewis's early life as a civil rights activist.

This book is very enjoyable and interesting, but the interesting book that I'm waiting to read someday is the book about Lewis's long life as a Congressman. What were the compromises and accommodation that he had to make in that body? What was the most unlikely person that he made common cause with? What (or Who) was the biggest disappointment?

Life is kind of crummy now and, if you're like me, you are in the market for a book that holds out promise and honors heroism without being too sticky-sweet. This is a book like that. It's a book that will hold the attention of any adult with a heart and a brain, but I also think it might be a good book for a teenager who wants to know about how things in the US have gotten to the sad state that they are in but isn't interested in being lectured on how to behave or what words are permitted.

I received a free electronic advance copy of this book. They even sent me an email asking me if I wanted it. Thanks Netgalley and Random House. (less)

His Truth Is Marching on: John Lewis and the Power of Hope is the new release by Jon Meacham. I always look forward to any book written by Jon Meacham, but this one was difficult to read with the recent passing of Congressman John Lewis. We all know of John Lewis from his time in Congress, as well as that horrific day in Selma known as Bloody Sunday. However, most people do not know the true life of John Lewis...those moments in his life that were not a headline on the news. Jon Meacham gives us those moments throughout the pages of this book...from the humble beginnings as a child to the years of activism...John Meacham eloquently tells the story of a true icon and American hero.

This is a book rich in history, and one that everyone should read. John Lewis lead by example, and fought every day of his life for what he believed in. He has never let anyone or anything stop his voice from being heard. This books shows how far we have come as a country, but it also shows how much more work needs to be done in order for us to achieve the one thing John Lewis fought for his entire life...equal rights for every single person.

John Lewis once said, "Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble." These are simple but yet extremely powerful words we should all live by, especially when so much injustice continues to happen every day.

I would like to thank Jon Meacham, Random House Publishing Group-Random House and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read and review an advance reader copy of this book. My views are my own, and are in no way influenced by anyone else.

I went in to this book hoping to learn a lot about John Lewis, the man and civil rights leader. At first, I was disappointed by how little about Mr. Lewis as an individual was included and how much more the book focused on the fight for civil rights. But, I shortly recognized that there isn't a way of separating the two. John Lewis may not be a household name like Martin Luther King, Jr, but really it should be but that wasn't how Mr. Lewis presented himself. He was happier being a bit quieter and behind the scenes and doing the work. And work he did! I do wish we learned more about Mr. Lewis' personal life. Meeting his wife, getting married, and adopting a child were all condensed into one paragraph. Additionally, the book ended too soon. I would like to have followed Mr. Lewis farther with maybe the opportunity to include more personal information. However, despite my disappointment, this was an incredible book following the early fight for civil rights. Sure wish Mr. Lewis were still with us!

His Truth Is Marching On is, to my knowledge, the first book to be released since the passing of civil rights activist and Member of Congress, John Lewis. In this book the author Jon Meacham calls Lewis, as others have also begun to do, an American Founding Father of the 20th/21st Centuries and a saint, because of his willingness to suffer and potentially die for others. This book is not a traditional cradle to the grave biography, it mostly covers Lewis’s civil rights years.

It begins by covering Lewis’s early days as young boy who wanted to become a preacher and who actually preached to his chickens on his family’s farm. As a teenager he became disenchanted with the preaching he heard from most pastors that mostly focused on the afterlife and not the here and now. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a noted exception to that rule. King preached about the here and now, especially on what Christianity had to say about segregation and Jim Crow. Lewis’s new found mentor inspired him to get involved in the civil rights crusade.

This book also covers the nonviolence training he received by the Rev. Jim Lawson, his participation in the Freedom Rides, his speech at the 1963 March on Washington, his role in Freedom Summer, the Selma campaign in 1965, and the beginning of the Black Power years of the late 1960s when his influence in the movement began to wane.

Readers will notice that this is a very quote heavy book. You will read alot of Lewis’s own words as he recalled how events occurred at the time, either from interviews he did with Meacham or from his autobiography. As was mentioned earlier, this is not a full length treatment of his life, however Meacham briefly covers his post civil rights career in the Epilogue. A longer definitive book that covers his entire long life is needed.

The book closes with an Afterword written by John Lewis. It is just as compelling as his New York Times piece that was published the day of his funeral. The Afterword gives readers their marching orders on how people can continue to make sure their society remains a just one.

Ultimately, I view this book as spiritual follow up to Meacham’s recent book The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels. John Lewis’s legacy and influence will continue to teach future generations how we can rise above the dark forces in society.

Thanks to NetGalley, Random House, and Jon Meacham for a free ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. This book will be released on August 25, 2020.