March: Book One

“I began spending more time doing schoolwork, studying, and my eyes began opening to the world around me.”

Education was the key that unlocked a new way of looking at the world for Lewis. As evidenced in the theme about the power of scholarship and education, Lewis’s pursuit of education enabled him to recognize the injustice around him and provided him with the tools he needed to combat those disparities.

“By the time I was five, I could read it myself, and one phrase struck me strongly, though I couldn’t comprehend its full meaning at the time—’Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.’”

Lewis was greatly influenced by the social gospel. From a young age, Lewis understood the biblical message of this passage as a call to apply the principles of love and faith to the injustices of the world. He wanted to “take away the sin of the world” through advocacy and education.

“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Lewis reads passage from the fifth chapter of Matthew in the Bible to his chickens. These verses were chosen by the authors with intention, as they represent the philosophy of the social gospel. Lewis devoted his life to caring for others and faced persecution for his righteous advocacy for civil rights.

“My parents would watch the newest tiny coffin join the neat row of small dirt-mounded graves, and wonder what kind of son they had.”

From a young age, Lewis was different from those around him. He cared deeply about his chickens, and that empathy and compassion stayed with him throughout his life. Adults in Lewis’s life often teased him for acting and dressing so maturely, but Lewis knew his life was earmarked for something different.

“School was important to me, and it was ultimately the reason I got involved in the civil rights movement.”

Education introduced Lewis to those who he would work with to fight segregation during the civil rights movement. It also enlightened him. In this moment, Lewis speaks to the two young boys in his office about the importance of pursuing their education. Lewis believed in the ability of education to unlock doors and to lead individuals to new paths.

“I wore a tie often, and some of the grownups teased me about that, telling me I dressed like a preacher. I know now that Uncle Otis saw something in me that I hadn’t yet seen.”

This quotation is another example of the way Lewis was set apart from those around him, especially his childhood peers. Adults in his life recognized he was different, and Lewis knew that he was too. He was serious and studious, and this led his uncle to take a special interest in him. The trip he took to Buffalo with Uncle Otis opened his eyes to what a world of better treatment for Black citizens could be like.

“We passed their schoolhouses as well, with nice playground equipment outside—nothing like our cluster of small cinderblock buildings with a dirt field out back for recess.”

After taking a trip with his uncle, Lewis saw more clearly the injustice and inequalities around him. He saw that his education was different from that of his white peers, and this truth stuck with him later in life as he protested segregation.

“We drove past prison work gangs almost every day. The prisoners were always black. As were the folks working in the fields beyond them. You couldn’t help but notice.”

Lewis included this information as further evidence of what unequal systems can do and the power they can have over groups of people. Lewis pointed out the ways his education was not equal to the white citizens in the South and how that inequality translates into a higher number of arrests for Black citizens.

“The doctrine of ‘separate but equal’—upon which the entire institution of segregation was based—had been ruled unconstitutional. I was so excited—surely everything was going to change.”

Lewis believed Brown v. Board of Education would change things for him, and soon he would be attending an integrated school with a higher quality of education. He soon learned, however, that merely saying something in court did not translate to real-time change in the South. This inconsistency became further evidence for the need of tangible desegregation.

“Then, one Sunday morning in early 1955, I was listening to WRMA out of Montgomery when I heard a sermon by someone unknown to me—a young preacher from Atlanta. I didn’t catch his name until the very end.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s influence on Lewis was profound. King introduced Lewis to the principles of the social gospel, a message that starkly contrasted with the messages of the ministers Lewis watched at home. Lewis felt inspired to use the social gospel to preach and to advocate for change.

“In May, a second Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board prompted segregationist elected officials, like Senators James Eastland of Mississippi and Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, to swear to the death their continued defiance of the court. Lines had been drawn. Blood was beginning to spill.”

This passage reveals the radical nature of the nonviolent efforts of Lewis and the other protestors at the time. When the rest of the world was offering hatred and violence, these civil rights activists were advocating for love and peace. It was important to them to offer themselves as a counterpart to hate.

“The day before, as he left the Money Country Store with some friends, Emmett said ‘Bye, Baby’ to the white woman behind the counter. The next day, he was dead.”

The murder of Emmett Till sparked a nationwide outcry, and the rallies around his death raised huge amounts of money for NAACP. Lewis lists Till’s death as one of the major events leading to the civil rights movement.

“I loved the new ideas college was introducing me to, in religion and philosophy—but I couldn’t stop thinking about the social gospel. Here I was reading about justice, when there were brave people out there working to make it happen. I started to feel guilty for not doing more. I became restless.”

Two themes are represented here: The Power of Scholarship and Education and Social Gospel and Nonviolent Action as a Means of Change. Lewis’s education led him to feel the weight of responsibility, and he knew he wanted to be a part of what was happening in the world of activism.

“Looking back, it must’ve been the spirit of history taking hold of my life—because in Nashville I’d meet people who opened my eyes to a sense of values that would forever dominate my moral philosophy—the way of peace, the way of love, the way of non-violence.”

Lewis recognized that the time he spent in Nashville introduced him to the people and ideas that would later create the trajectory of his life. The concepts presented by Jim Lawson became the guiding force in his activism, further emphasizing the theme of social gospel and nonviolent action as a means of change.

“He spoke of Gandhi, this little brown man from India using the way of nonviolence to free an entire nation of people. And how we could apply nonviolence, just as Dr. King did in Montgomery, all across America—South and North—to eradicate some of the evils we all faced: the evil of racism, the evil of poverty, the evil of war.”

Lawson’s time in India acquainted him with the life and work of Gandhi, and he felt compelled to apply his teachings to the current situation in the United States. A student of the social gospel, Lewis felt that these two philosophies coincided and that they further reflected the biblical teachings of his childhood.

“His words liberated me. I thought, this is it...This is the way out.”

Lawson’s teachings set Lewis on his path of activism and peaceful protest. He felt “liberated” by Lawson’s lessons, a word he used again when he was arrested during the sit-in protests. Lewis felt most free when he advocating and using his life for activism.

“In time, everyone plays the roles of protestors, the instigators, and the resistance. There may be a black person playing the role of a white person, or vice versa. We tried to do everything we could to test ourselves, to break each other’s spirits.”

It was important to the student group that they could withstand numerous hardships and adversities. They knew whatever they offered to each other would pale in comparison to the hatred and violence they would face amidst their protests. By taking turns, they all learned how to react in the face of distress and attack.

“The hardest part to learn—to truly understand, deep in your heart—was how to find love for your attacker.”

At all times, the protestors set themselves up as the antithesis to what they were fighting. To fight against injustice and violence, they needed to be just and anti-violent. They challenged each other to find love for those who treated them with only vitriol and hatred.

“Violence does beget violence, but the opposite is just as true.”

Notably, Lewis and the other protestors found that Lawson’s teachings had merit. When their harassers could not provoke any violent action from the protestors, they grew tired and left. Although the protestors were arrested, they were not arrested for violent behavior of any kind.

“I was not afraid. I felt free, liberated—like I had crossed over.”

Lewis’s arrest after the lunch counter protests operates as the climax of this early story and represents the moment in which Lewis’s dream is fulfilled. From a young age, he wants to do something more and to contribute to the fight against injustice. In this moment, Lewis realized that he had achieved his goal.

“We wanted to change America—to make it something different, something better.”

Lewis’s advocacy is simply summarized in this line. Segregation was not a path forward, and it did not represent the America he knew it could be.

“We feel that by paying these fines, we would be contributing to, and supporting, the injustices and immoral practices that have been performed in the arrest and conviction of the defendants.”

Diane Nash made this statement in court after the arrest of the SNCC. By refusing to pay fines, the group exhausted the resources of the judicial system and further highlight the injustices they were fighting.

“We must tap into our greatest resource, a people no longer the victims of racial evil, who can act in a disciplined manner to implement the Constitution.”

Lawson challenged what he perceived to be the conservative practices of the NAACP. Lewis felt that to enact change they must be willing to push harder and go further. Nonviolent action was a means to continue to challenge the systems oppressing Black Americans.