Chap­ter 18: Atlanta takes the read­er on a jour­ney through John Lewis’s return to his home­town of Atlanta in 1980, as he sought to con­tin­ue his pub­lic ser­vice work after years of activism. Ini­tial­ly, Lewis con­sid­ered run­ning for may­or, yet after care­ful reflec­tion, he decid­ed that this role wasn’t a good fit for him. Instead, he focused on the upcom­ing city coun­cil elec­tions in 1981, aim­ing for an at-large seat, rec­og­niz­ing his desire to serve the com­mu­ni­ty in a dif­fer­ent capac­i­ty. Dur­ing this time, Lewis also took up the role of direc­tor of com­mu­ni­ty affairs for the Nation­al Con­sumer Coop­er­a­tive Bank, with a focus on dri­ving eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment in low-income areas. How­ev­er, his expe­ri­ence in this role left him feel­ing unsat­is­fied, par­tic­u­lar­ly when he had to make dif­fi­cult deci­sions, such as over­see­ing the ter­mi­na­tion of loans, lead­ing to back­lash from the com­mu­ni­ties he aimed to sup­port.

By ear­ly 1981, as spec­u­la­tion around the city coun­cil race grew, Lewis offi­cial­ly announced his can­di­da­cy. Chal­leng­ing the incum­bent Jack Sum­mers, Lewis cam­paigned across Atlanta, con­nect­ing with vot­ers in neigh­bor­hoods of all socioe­co­nom­ic back­grounds. Through his efforts, he gained valu­able insights into the strug­gles fac­ing the city, and his once-hope­ful view of Atlanta’s progress began to wane. He quick­ly rec­og­nized that the issues of seg­re­ga­tion, pover­ty, and crime were still ram­pant in cer­tain areas, and while some progress had been made, there was still much work to be done. Lewis used his plat­form to advo­cate for the inter­con­nect­ed­ness of urban issues and empha­sized poli­cies that would tar­get eco­nom­ic inequal­i­ty, enhance job oppor­tu­ni­ties, and address sys­temic injus­tices with­in the city’s gov­ern­ment.

Dur­ing his cam­paign, Lewis framed him­self as “a voice for the voice­less,” giv­ing par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to the issues with­in the Black com­mu­ni­ty. He called out the grow­ing crime rates and the lack of prop­er inter­ven­tion from city lead­er­ship. In addi­tion, his crit­i­cism of the city council’s ethics and the many con­flicts of inter­est among its mem­bers earned him both sup­port and scorn. One of the most sig­nif­i­cant points of con­tention was his oppo­si­tion to the pres­i­den­tial park­way project, which was being cham­pi­oned by Pres­i­dent Jim­my Carter. Lewis, con­cerned about the impact the devel­op­ment would have on his­toric neigh­bor­hoods, led cam­paigns against the project, bring­ing atten­tion to envi­ron­men­tal racism and the risks it posed to low­er-income and minor­i­ty com­mu­ni­ties.

While the coun­cil vot­ed against him in the ini­tial pro­pos­al for the park­way, Lewis’s res­olute activism didn’t go unno­ticed. His vocal stance on the issue sparked an out­pour­ing of com­mu­ni­ty sup­port, which ulti­mate­ly played a piv­otal role in mod­i­fy­ing the devel­op­ment plan. His tire­less efforts to pre­serve these neigh­bor­hoods illus­trat­ed his deep com­mit­ment to fight­ing for mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties, even in the face of polit­i­cal adver­si­ty. Despite some set­backs, his rep­u­ta­tion as a cham­pi­on of jus­tice con­tin­ued to grow, and his per­sis­tence in the polit­i­cal are­na only strength­ened his resolve. How­ev­er, this chap­ter also reflects the per­son­al and polit­i­cal com­plex­i­ties that came with Lewis’s rise in city pol­i­tics, includ­ing the strained rela­tion­ships with some of his peers, par­tic­u­lar­ly his rival­ry with Julian Bond. This peri­od marked a crit­i­cal turn­ing point for Lewis, as he trans­formed from a revered civ­il rights leader into a sig­nif­i­cant polit­i­cal fig­ure in the city of Atlanta, nav­i­gat­ing the inter­sec­tion of activism, gov­er­nance, and per­son­al sac­ri­fice.

By the end of the chap­ter, Lewis emerged as a fig­ure who under­stood the intri­ca­cies of both polit­i­cal com­pro­mise and moral integri­ty. His activism, which had always been deeply root­ed in social jus­tice, remained unwa­ver­ing as he tran­si­tioned into the world of local pol­i­tics. Through his work on the city coun­cil and his con­tin­ued advo­ca­cy for the dis­en­fran­chised, Lewis showed the city and the coun­try what it meant to fight for equal­i­ty and oppor­tu­ni­ty for all, no mat­ter the cost. The chap­ter not only out­lines the polit­i­cal dynam­ics Lewis faced but also pro­vides insight into the per­son­al evo­lu­tion of a man who remained dri­ven by a com­mit­ment to serv­ing his com­mu­ni­ty and ensur­ing a more equi­table future for future gen­er­a­tions.