In Chap­ter Twen­ty-Three, titled “In Oppo­si­tion,” the nar­ra­tive begins with John Lewis’s ini­tial meet­ing with Pres­i­dent George W. Bush in Feb­ru­ary 2001 at a House Demo­c­ra­t­ic retreat. The encounter sets a tone of bipar­ti­san­ship as the new pres­i­dent attempts to bridge par­ti­san divides. Just months lat­er, the trag­ic events of Sep­tem­ber 11 occur, leav­ing Lewis in shock as he hears about the ter­ror attacks on the World Trade Cen­ter and the Pen­ta­gon while prepar­ing for work. Con­cerned for the peo­ple around him, he defies attempts to keep him indoors and ven­tures out, want­i­ng to con­nect and pro­vide solace.

Through­out the day, Lewis engages with fel­low law­mak­ers and con­stituents, demon­strat­ing his empa­thet­ic nature. He shares prayers with Sen­a­tor Pat Leahy, empha­siz­ing uni­ty regard­less of faith or back­ground in the face of tragedy. At a sub­se­quent vig­il, Lewis is called on to speak, rein­forc­ing his role as a trust­ed voice in try­ing times. His appeal for divine guid­ance speaks to his con­vic­tions as a Bap­tist min­is­ter, show­cas­ing a side of him that strives for hope amidst chaos.

The chap­ter delves into leg­isla­tive actions fol­low­ing the attacks. While many ral­lied behind the need for new secu­ri­ty mea­sures, Lewis casts a crit­i­cal eye on the Patri­ot Act, reject­ing it due to con­cerns over civ­il lib­er­ties. He reluc­tant­ly sup­ports mil­i­tary action against the Tal­iban, empha­siz­ing his nuanced stance on the use of force, shaped by his expe­ri­ences dur­ing pre­vi­ous inter­na­tion­al con­flicts.

Lewis posi­tions him­self as a cham­pi­on of civ­il rights his­to­ry, build­ing alliances for pro­gres­sive laws. His efforts cul­mi­nate in a long-stand­ing dream for a nation­al African Amer­i­can muse­um, which he cham­pi­ons tire­less­ly through­out his con­gres­sion­al career. The intro­duc­tion of bipar­ti­san sup­port, par­tic­u­lar­ly from Sen­a­tor Sam Brown­back, sig­ni­fies a turn­ing point in the dri­ve for the muse­um’s estab­lish­ment.

Despite var­i­ous set­backs with the muse­um pro­pos­al, includ­ing resis­tance from the Smith­son­ian, Lewis’s per­sis­tence pays off as the bill ulti­mate­ly pass­es both the House and Sen­ate. He cel­e­brates this sig­nif­i­cant vic­to­ry with sup­port­ers while main­tain­ing a hum­ble out­look, ful­ly aware that his mis­sion to advance civ­il rights and his­tor­i­cal under­stand­ing is ongo­ing. The chap­ter poignant­ly reflects Lewis’s resilience in advo­cat­ing for change while nav­i­gat­ing the com­plex­i­ties of pol­i­tics and per­son­al loss, cul­mi­nat­ing in the even­tu­al ground­break­ing of the Nation­al Muse­um of African Amer­i­can His­to­ry and Cul­ture.