Chap­ter 20: On the Hill delves into John Lewis’s entry into the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, a momen­tous occa­sion mark­ing the begin­ning of his influ­en­tial polit­i­cal jour­ney. As he and his fam­i­ly, includ­ing his wife Lil­lian and son John-Miles, make their way to Wash­ing­ton for his swear­ing-in, they bring a cel­e­bra­to­ry atmos­phere to the trip. Aboard Amtrak, Lewis’s jour­ney is filled with joy, accom­pa­nied by a bas­ket of cham­pagne, jam­bal­aya, and bal­loons, with friends join­ing in on the fes­tiv­i­ties. Reflect­ing on his past, as the train trav­els toward the nation’s cap­i­tal, Lewis takes a moment to appre­ci­ate the strug­gles that had brought him to this point, express­ing a deep sense of grat­i­tude for his pre­vi­ous hard­ships. The phrase, “The beat­ings, the arrests—it was all worth it,” cap­tures his recog­ni­tion of how those chal­lenges had shaped his path and ulti­mate­ly pre­pared him for the weight of the respon­si­bil­i­ties ahead.

Upon his arrival in Wash­ing­ton, Lewis is struck with nos­tal­gia as he gazes at the Capi­tol dome, rem­i­nis­cent of the first time he vis­it­ed in 1961. His assigned office in the Can­non Build­ing, though mod­est­ly fur­nished with red car­na­tions and type­writ­ers, sym­bol­izes the hum­ble begin­nings from which his polit­i­cal career would rise. Although his office lacks mod­ern ameni­ties like phones, Lewis’s unwa­ver­ing deter­mi­na­tion dri­ves him to adapt to the envi­ron­ment. He is sur­round­ed by the Geor­gia del­e­ga­tion, affec­tion­ate­ly known as “Red­neck Row,” and the group shares in a cel­e­bra­to­ry gath­er­ing in the Cau­cus Room, a moment filled with opti­mism and antic­i­pa­tion for the work that lies ahead. Lewis’s polit­i­cal pres­ence begins to take shape, even in these ear­ly, seem­ing­ly unre­mark­able moments, lay­ing the foun­da­tion for his ongo­ing fight for jus­tice and equal­i­ty.

On the day of his swear­ing-in, Lewis faces the chaot­ic nature of the Capi­tol build­ing, where he gets lost nav­i­gat­ing its cor­ri­dors but is helped by Sen­a­tor Sam Nunn. Amid the hec­tic pace of the day, Lewis con­nects with fel­low fresh­men, such as Joseph Kennedy II and Mike Espy, who share his sense of excite­ment about their shared mis­sion. These ear­ly inter­ac­tions with his peers high­light the sol­i­dar­i­ty and mutu­al respect with­in the Con­gres­sion­al Black Cau­cus, which would lat­er play a piv­otal role in shap­ing Lewis’s polit­i­cal vision. Mean­while, Love Collins and Richard Ossoff are hard at work staffing Lewis’s office, eager to find the right indi­vid­u­als to fill cru­cial roles. Lewis remains calm and com­posed despite the fren­zy, focus­ing on secur­ing the future of his team and set­ting the tone for how his office would oper­ate mov­ing for­ward. Though some of his staff ini­tial­ly feel over­looked, Lewis’s patient and mea­sured approach ulti­mate­ly leads to the appoint­ment of Clarence Bish­op as his chief of staff, who will go on to play a key role in bal­anc­ing the demands of his polit­i­cal career with his vision for a more dynam­ic and youth­ful office envi­ron­ment.

As the chap­ter unfolds, it becomes clear that Lewis’s time on the Hill is not just about ris­ing to pow­er but also about the ongo­ing strug­gle to find his polit­i­cal iden­ti­ty. The com­plex­i­ties of his rela­tion­ships with col­leagues, friends, and fam­i­ly begin to sur­face as Lewis works tire­less­ly to make his mark in the polit­i­cal world. While nav­i­gat­ing the chal­lenges of race, pow­er, and com­mu­ni­ty, Lewis also faces the con­stant bal­anc­ing act of adher­ing to his per­son­al prin­ci­ples while ful­fill­ing the expec­ta­tions of the polit­i­cal estab­lish­ment. His role as a con­gress­man requires him to deal with sen­si­tive issues sur­round­ing leg­isla­tive pol­i­cy, while at the same time, he strives to stay true to the val­ues that have always guid­ed him. By the end of the chap­ter, it’s evi­dent that Lewis has become a key fig­ure with­in Con­gress, demon­strat­ing the resilience and com­mit­ment to the caus­es he holds dear. His lead­er­ship in Con­gress is begin­ning to take shape, and this chap­ter marks a piv­otal moment in his ongo­ing jour­ney as an advo­cate for jus­tice, equal­i­ty, and social change in Amer­i­ca.