Historian David Greenberg’s new biography, John Lewis: A Life, is the definitive biography of a man whose heroism helped to bring America a new birth of freedom. Greenberg will share Lewis’ vital contributions to the Civil Rights Movement—from working as a Freedom Rider to being the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington to nearly dying after being beaten by Alabama State Troopers after leading a march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery.

He will also detail Lewis’ post-Civil Rights Movement years, including as a leader of the Voter Education Project and as a longtime Democratic leader in Congress. Greenberg will take us behind the scenes to his interviews with Lewis and approximately 275 others who knew him at various stages of his life, as well as how he accessed never-before-used FBI files and long-lost footage of Lewis speaking to reporters from his hospital bed following “Bloody Sunday” in Selma.

A book signing will follow this program

• This program is presented in partnership with the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
• Chicago Humanities is pleased to partner with Chicago’s Seminary Co-op Bookstores, the country’s first not-for-profit bookstore.
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