Chap­ter 16: The First Race high­lights John Lewis’s ini­tial for­ay into elec­toral pol­i­tics and the chal­lenges he faced as he cam­paigned for a con­gres­sion­al seat in 1976. Fol­low­ing Jim­my Carter’s elec­tion as Pres­i­dent, Andrew Young’s appoint­ment as the Unit­ed States Ambas­sador to the Unit­ed Nations opened up a seat in Con­gress that many, includ­ing Lewis, had their eyes on. Ini­tial­ly hes­i­tant, Lewis wor­ried that his entry into the race might risk African Amer­i­can rep­re­sen­ta­tion in Con­gress, espe­cial­ly since Young had been a key fig­ure in the Black com­mu­ni­ty. His con­cern stemmed from the poten­tial of under­min­ing the progress made by African Amer­i­cans in Con­gress after years of strug­gle.

How­ev­er, as time passed, the pres­sure and encour­age­ment from his wife, Lil­lian, helped Lewis see the oppor­tu­ni­ty before him. Lil­lian believed deeply in John’s poten­tial and knew he could make a sig­nif­i­cant impact in high­er office. Their per­son­al life had also recent­ly changed with the adop­tion of their son, John-Miles, which added anoth­er lay­er of moti­va­tion for Lewis to pur­sue his ambi­tions. Lil­lian played a cru­cial role in push­ing him for­ward, encour­ag­ing him to run for the seat and offer­ing unwa­ver­ing sup­port as they nav­i­gat­ed this new chap­ter in their lives. John, already respect­ed for his work in civ­il rights and his posi­tion with the Vot­er Edu­ca­tion Project (VEP), was ready to take the leap, know­ing that it was the right time to step into the polit­i­cal are­na.

As his cam­paign gained momen­tum, Lewis found him­self in direct com­pe­ti­tion with Wyche Fowler, a more estab­lished and sea­soned can­di­date. Despite his strong moral rep­u­ta­tion, Lewis was not as expe­ri­enced in the realm of elec­toral pol­i­tics as Fowler, which made the race increas­ing­ly dif­fi­cult. With his can­di­da­cy rep­re­sent­ing the hopes of many African Amer­i­cans in the dis­trict, Lewis tried to focus on key issues, such as increas­ing vot­er par­tic­i­pa­tion and address­ing racial inequal­i­ties, but the road to vic­to­ry was filled with obsta­cles. The dis­trict, which was 60 per­cent white, posed sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges for Lewis, as many white vot­ers were unsure of his abil­i­ty to rep­re­sent their inter­ests. This made the cam­paign more com­plex, with Lewis’s mes­sage of racial uni­ty and social jus­tice often falling short com­pared to Fowler’s more pol­ished polit­i­cal back­ground.

Through­out the race, Lewis remained com­mit­ted to rep­re­sent­ing all of his con­stituents, par­tic­u­lar­ly the mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties he had cham­pi­oned through­out his life. He faced resis­tance not only from Fowler but also from fel­low Black can­di­dates, includ­ing Ralph Aber­nathy, who ques­tioned Lewis’s con­nec­tion to the estab­lished Black lead­er­ship. Lewis’s cam­paign, while gain­ing trac­tion in some areas, strug­gled to gain wide­spread finan­cial sup­port, fur­ther com­pli­cat­ing his efforts. The cam­paign also lacked the finan­cial back­ing of more influ­en­tial fig­ures and, at times, was ham­pered by his per­ceived lack of polit­i­cal charis­ma. One of his most sig­nif­i­cant mis­steps occurred dur­ing a press event aimed at Black reporters, which failed to attract the atten­tion need­ed to gen­er­ate excite­ment and ral­ly sup­port.

Despite these set­backs, Lewis’s deter­mi­na­tion to fight for a bet­ter, more inclu­sive future kept him focused on the goal. His mes­sage of uni­ty was one that res­onat­ed with many vot­ers who want­ed to see some­one tru­ly rep­re­sent their inter­ests, but con­nect­ing with white vot­ers in such a divid­ed dis­trict remained an ongo­ing chal­lenge. As Elec­tion Day approached, Lewis’s grass­roots efforts con­tin­ued, with his team work­ing tire­less­ly to mobi­lize vot­ers and bridge the gap between the Black and white com­mu­ni­ties. Still, the polit­i­cal land­scape remained deeply divid­ed, and Lewis found him­self at odds with both his allies and his oppo­nents.

In the end, the results of the elec­tion were a sober­ing real­i­ty for Lewis, who gar­nered 29 per­cent of the vote, com­pared to Fowler’s 60 per­cent. Though his defeat was a hard pill to swal­low, Lewis rec­og­nized that the fight was far from over. He knew that his first attempt at polit­i­cal office had paved the way for future endeav­ors and that the lessons learned from this race would help shape his polit­i­cal career mov­ing for­ward. His cam­paign, though unsuc­cess­ful, had brought atten­tion to the issues fac­ing African Amer­i­cans in the South and solid­i­fied his posi­tion as a promi­nent fig­ure in the fight for civ­il rights and equal­i­ty.

Lewis’s ini­tial polit­i­cal race, despite the dis­ap­point­ment of los­ing, proved to be a turn­ing point in his life. It was not just about secur­ing a seat in Con­gress but about rep­re­sent­ing a larg­er move­ment for change that res­onat­ed with peo­ple across the coun­try. His abil­i­ty to reflect on the elec­tion and his abil­i­ty to remain opti­mistic about the future were tes­ta­ments to his resilience and com­mit­ment to his val­ues. Although the race had pre­sent­ed numer­ous chal­lenges, Lewis’s unwa­ver­ing spir­it to con­tin­ue the fight for jus­tice and equal­i­ty was clear, and it fore­shad­owed the many polit­i­cal bat­tles he would go on to win in his long career in pub­lic ser­vice.