In Chap­ter 26: Con­science of the Con­gress, the author reflects on the polit­i­cal tur­bu­lence at the end of Barack Oba­ma’s pres­i­den­cy. Although his admin­is­tra­tion had revived the econ­o­my and addressed key social issues like health­care and LGBTQ+ rights, the nation was still grap­pling with racial ten­sions, ongo­ing gun vio­lence, and an immi­gra­tion cri­sis. John Lewis, a strong advo­cate for Oba­ma dur­ing his pres­i­den­tial cam­paigns, found him­self reflect­ing on his pre­vi­ous sup­port. He had ini­tial­ly backed Oba­ma over Hillary Clin­ton, but by 2016, Lewis was filled with regret and decid­ed to sup­port Clin­ton. This endorse­ment took place dur­ing a charged event at Clark Atlanta Uni­ver­si­ty, where Clin­ton faced protests, par­tic­u­lar­ly over her role in the 1994 crime bill, which had been a source of con­tention among many of the more pro­gres­sive vot­ers in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty.

Mean­while, the 2016 Demo­c­ra­t­ic pri­maries were sig­nif­i­cant­ly impact­ed by Bernie Sanders, whose cam­paign stirred con­sid­er­able frus­tra­tion among Clin­ton sup­port­ers, espe­cial­ly from the younger, more rad­i­cal fac­tions of the left. Sanders pre­sent­ed him­self as a long­time advo­cate of civ­il rights, but Lewis, who had a long his­to­ry of activism, was skep­ti­cal of his self-pro­claimed sta­tus. Lewis’s pub­lic ques­tion­ing of Sander­s’s involve­ment in the civ­il rights move­ment high­light­ed the dif­fer­ences in their polit­i­cal approach­es. As Sanders’s sup­port­ers clashed with Clinton’s, Lewis found him­self in a dif­fi­cult posi­tion, try­ing to sup­port the uni­ty of the par­ty while rec­on­cil­ing his own frus­tra­tions with the direc­tion the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty was tak­ing. The pri­maries brought to the fore­front the ide­o­log­i­cal divides with­in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty, some­thing that would con­tin­ue to shape the polit­i­cal land­scape in the years to come.

The chap­ter also delves into one of the most emo­tion­al and pow­er­ful moments of Lewis’s career: the sit-in on the House floor in response to the trag­ic mass shoot­ing at Pulse night­club in Orlan­do, Flori­da. This event, which took place in June 2016, was a piv­otal moment in the fight for gun con­trol. After the shoot­ing, which claimed 49 inno­cent lives, Lewis, along­side a group of pas­sion­ate Democ­rats, staged an impromp­tu sit-in, demand­ing action on gun vio­lence. The sit-in became a sig­nif­i­cant piece of polit­i­cal the­ater, draw­ing nation­al atten­tion to the need for leg­isla­tive action. Although the action was met with resis­tance from lead­er­ship, it was suc­cess­ful in ele­vat­ing the con­ver­sa­tion around gun con­trol. The media cov­er­age of the event helped to rekin­dle a sense of urgency around an issue that had long been ignored by many law­mak­ers, with the actions of Lewis and his col­leagues remind­ing the coun­try of the impor­tance of address­ing vio­lence and the need for a more com­pre­hen­sive approach to gun reg­u­la­tion.

As 2016 drew to a close, Lewis found him­self increas­ing­ly engaged in Clin­ton’s cam­paign, hop­ing to secure her pres­i­den­cy against the ris­ing tide of Don­ald Trump’s pop­ulist mes­sage. The elec­tion was noth­ing short of a nation­al cri­sis, with Trump’s divi­sive rhetoric caus­ing deep rifts in the fab­ric of Amer­i­can soci­ety. Despite the chal­lenges of a bit­ter and polar­iz­ing elec­tion sea­son, Lewis remained hope­ful that the coun­try could remain unit­ed. His efforts includ­ed advo­cat­ing for Clin­ton’s cam­paign, speak­ing at ral­lies, and pro­mot­ing the impor­tance of vot­er par­tic­i­pa­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly among mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties. Even as racial divi­sions deep­ened and the future of the nation seemed uncer­tain, Lewis remained deter­mined, know­ing that the fight for equal­i­ty, jus­tice, and democ­ra­cy was far from over. His activism in this final chap­ter under­scored the ongo­ing rel­e­vance of his work and his unshake­able com­mit­ment to the cause of civ­il rights.

This chap­ter fur­ther high­lights the emo­tion­al toll of the 2016 elec­tion, and how the divi­sive nature of Trump’s cam­paign affect­ed not only the polit­i­cal cli­mate but also the per­son­al lives of many Amer­i­cans. Through­out the cam­paign, Lewis’s sense of duty was evi­dent in his tire­less efforts to main­tain peace, uni­ty, and social jus­tice amidst a sea of polit­i­cal chaos. The emo­tion­al strain was par­tic­u­lar­ly appar­ent in Lewis’s reflec­tions on his past achieve­ments and the future of the nation. The chap­ter explores how his ded­i­ca­tion to his cause remained res­olute, even as he con­tend­ed with the rise of extrem­ism and the chal­lenges that came with being an unwa­ver­ing voice of jus­tice. The lega­cy of Lewis’s work con­tin­ued to res­onate, even in the face of adver­si­ty, remind­ing the coun­try of the impor­tance of fight­ing for the val­ues of democ­ra­cy, equal­i­ty, and jus­tice.