Acknowl­edg­ments play a vital role in express­ing appre­ci­a­tion to those whose con­tri­bu­tions shaped the book. The author extends pro­found grat­i­tude to the late John Lewis, whose sup­port and insights were invalu­able to the cre­ation of this work. Their first meet­ing with Lewis took place in Feb­ru­ary 2019 in Atlanta, where he offered his full sup­port for the project. Due to the chal­lenges posed by the pan­dem­ic, face-to-face inter­views were replaced by mean­ing­ful phone con­ver­sa­tions, allow­ing the author to gain an in-depth under­stand­ing of Lewis’s life. Michael Collins, Lewis’s chief of staff, played a crit­i­cal role through­out the process by grant­i­ng access to key indi­vid­u­als and ensur­ing the fac­tu­al integri­ty of the nar­ra­tive, pro­vid­ing invalu­able assis­tance in the research.

An essen­tial part of the research was inter­view­ing a diverse group of about 250 indi­vid­u­als, includ­ing promi­nent fig­ures like Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, Pres­i­dent Clin­ton, and Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton, all of whom shared per­son­al anec­dotes and mem­o­ries of John Lewis. Their con­tri­bu­tions, along with those of Lewis’s fam­i­ly, col­leagues, and friends, were cru­cial in enrich­ing the nar­ra­tive, par­tic­u­lar­ly in areas where archival mate­ri­als were either insuf­fi­cient or absent. This diverse input helped the author paint a more detailed and nuanced pic­ture of Lewis’s extra­or­di­nary life. The unique per­spec­tives from these influ­en­tial indi­vid­u­als, com­bined with pre­vi­ous­ly unavail­able records, pro­vid­ed a deep­er insight into the sig­nif­i­cance of John Lewis’s lega­cy and the impact he made on the civ­il rights move­ment, rein­forc­ing his role as a his­tor­i­cal and moral leader.

The author also express­es grat­i­tude to those who pro­vid­ed pri­vate mate­ri­als and par­tic­i­pat­ed in inter­views with Lewis, con­tribut­ing to the research’s rich­ness. Archie Allen, who had tried to write a biog­ra­phy of Lewis in 1968, gen­er­ous­ly shared his exten­sive archive, adding his­tor­i­cal con­text to the sto­ry. Fur­ther­more, col­lab­o­ra­tions with his­to­ri­ans and aca­d­e­m­ic insti­tu­tions, includ­ing access to Hen­ry Louis Gates’s mate­ri­als from the show Find­ing Your Roots and invalu­able record­ings from Dan­ny Lyon and Sean Wilentz, added depth and accu­ra­cy to the research. The insights from these resources helped enhance the his­tor­i­cal authen­tic­i­ty of the biog­ra­phy, offer­ing a well-round­ed per­spec­tive on Lewis’s jour­ney, val­ues, and the broad­er civ­il rights strug­gle. These col­lab­o­ra­tions sig­nif­i­cant­ly strength­ened the research and allowed for a more com­pre­hen­sive explo­ration of Lewis’s lega­cy in a way that hon­ored his immense con­tri­bu­tions.

Spe­cial men­tion is also giv­en to the archivists and librar­i­ans at insti­tu­tions like Rut­gers Uni­ver­si­ty and the New York Pub­lic Library, whose exper­tise in orga­niz­ing and pro­vid­ing access to rel­e­vant research mate­ri­als proved indis­pens­able. Their efforts ensured that crit­i­cal doc­u­ments and resources were avail­able to the author dur­ing the writ­ing process. Addi­tion­al­ly, the con­tri­bu­tions of var­i­ous his­to­ri­ans and jour­nal­ists who pro­vid­ed schol­ar­ly input were instru­men­tal in broad­en­ing the con­text of the nar­ra­tive. Their diverse per­spec­tives on the civ­il rights move­ment enriched the sto­ry­telling and offered a more mul­ti­fac­eted under­stand­ing of John Lewis’s place with­in that piv­otal chap­ter of Amer­i­can his­to­ry.

The sup­port from Rut­gers Uni­ver­si­ty is acknowl­edged, with the author express­ing grat­i­tude to offi­cials and col­leagues who helped cre­ate an envi­ron­ment con­ducive to research and schol­ar­ship. Finan­cial assis­tance from exter­nal grants and fel­low­ships also played a piv­otal role in com­plet­ing the project, and thanks are extend­ed to the orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als who pro­vid­ed this cru­cial back­ing. This exter­nal sup­port ensured that the author had the resources and oppor­tu­ni­ties to ful­ly ded­i­cate them­selves to the project, allow­ing for a thor­ough explo­ration of John Lewis’s life and work.

Final­ly, the con­tri­bu­tions of research assis­tants, par­tic­u­lar­ly Kather­ine Thai, are acknowl­edged for their invalu­able sup­port through­out the process. The author also cred­its the emo­tion­al encour­age­ment from writ­ing groups, men­tors, and fam­i­ly mem­bers, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing the more dif­fi­cult stages of writ­ing. This sup­port, both intel­lec­tu­al and emo­tion­al, was cru­cial in com­plet­ing the biog­ra­phy, which is ulti­mate­ly ded­i­cat­ed to the author’s par­ents, whose com­mit­ment to social jus­tice inspired the themes that are cen­tral to Lewis’s life and this biog­ra­phy. The author’s deep appre­ci­a­tion for their guid­ance and encour­age­ment through­out the writ­ing process is clear, as it allowed them to explore and doc­u­ment the pro­found impact of John Lewis on the world.