In March 1968, at a con­ven­tion in Mis­sis­sip­pi, John Lewis and friends Con­nie Cur­ry and Joan Brown­ing cel­e­brat­ed Robert Kennedy’s announce­ment to chal­lenge Lyn­don John­son for the Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial nom­i­na­tion. Kennedy’s move fol­lowed wide­spread dis­sat­is­fac­tion among Democ­rats with Johnson’s Viet­nam War poli­cies, notably fol­low­ing a strong show­ing by chal­lenger Eugene McCarthy in the New Hamp­shire pri­ma­ry. While McCarthy sup­port­ers viewed Kennedy’s entry as a threat, many saw hope in Kennedy, includ­ing Lewis, who had shift­ed his opin­ion of Kennedy from skep­ti­cism dur­ing the Free­dom Rides to belief in his com­mit­ment to civ­il rights and social jus­tice.

After watch­ing the announce­ment, Lewis sent a telegram to the Kennedy cam­paign offer­ing assis­tance. The cam­paign sought strong Black lead­er­ship, giv­en the essen­tial role of Black vot­ers for Kennedy’s suc­cess. Lewis relo­cat­ed to Indi­anapo­lis to mobi­lize sup­port for the upcom­ing Indi­ana pri­ma­ry. The campaign’s kick­off ral­ly was strate­gi­cal­ly held in a Black neigh­bor­hood, where Lewis ener­get­i­cal­ly pro­mot­ed the event. How­ev­er, news broke of Mar­tin Luther King Jr.‘s assas­si­na­tion ear­li­er that day, bring­ing shock and grief to the gath­ered crowd. Kennedy insist­ed on address­ing the audi­ence, deliv­er­ing a heart­felt and sen­si­tive speech that mourned King’s death while urg­ing uni­ty rather than despair.

In the imme­di­ate after­math, as riots erupt­ed nation­wide, Indi­anapo­lis remained calm. Lewis wit­nessed Kennedy’s emo­tion­al strain as he facil­i­tat­ed arrange­ments for King’s bur­ial fol­low­ing a meet­ing with Black com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers. Though the meet­ing was tense, ulti­mate­ly they agreed to sup­port Kennedy in return for cam­paign funds.

Mov­ing for­ward, Lewis returned to cam­paign work, achiev­ing sig­nif­i­cant wins for Kennedy in var­i­ous pri­maries and build­ing momen­tum. But ten­sions flared as he rec­og­nized shift­ing sen­ti­ments among young Black lead­ers who felt increas­ing­ly dis­il­lu­sioned. Despite loss­es in some pri­maries, includ­ing Ore­gon, Lewis remained com­mit­ted to Kennedy’s vision, hop­ing to chan­nel the spir­it of the civ­il rights move­ment into the elec­tion.

As the Cal­i­for­nia pri­ma­ry approached, enthu­si­asm surged; how­ev­er, on the night of vic­to­ry cel­e­bra­tions, tragedy struck again when Kennedy was assas­si­nat­ed by Sirhan Sirhan. In the after­math, Lewis felt pro­found despair, reflect­ing on the loss­es of both King and Kennedy. Despite per­son­al grief, Lewis remained involved, embrac­ing the polit­i­cal chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties that lay ahead, includ­ing a poten­tial con­ven­tion chal­lenge to ensure rep­re­sen­ta­tion for mar­gin­al­ized voic­es.