In the 1960s, John Lewis led the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, committed to the belief, as the New York Times put it, "that allowing himself to be beaten nearly to death in public would hasten the collapse of Southern apartheid." Which is more or less what happened, most notably at Bloody Sunday.
John Lewis would go on to lose leadership of SNCC and decades later win election to Congress, representing Georgia from 1987 until his death in 2020.
In a moment in which our nation seems defined by both national politics and the activism those politics provoke, Congressman Lewis' life offers a model of resistance, optimism, and leadership, one that ultimately changed our nation for the better.
As part of the City Club's 2025 Annual Meeting, join us as Thompson Hine's Robyn Minter Smyers leads a conversation with biographer David Greenberg on John Lewis's remarkable life and the lessons it holds for all of us.
Speaker
David Greenberg
Professor of History and of Journalism & Media Studies, Rutgers University
Moderator
Robyn Minter Smyers
Member, City Club Board of Directors; and Partner , Thompson Hine LLP