Chap­ter 24: “Because of You” delves into the deep­en­ing rela­tion­ship between John Lewis and Barack Oba­ma, which began with a sig­nif­i­cant moment dur­ing Lewis’s 65th birth­day cel­e­bra­tion in Feb­ru­ary 2005. Lewis, at the time, invit­ed Oba­ma, who had recent­ly gained nation­al atten­tion after deliv­er­ing a pow­er­ful keynote speech at the 2004 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion. Oba­ma, still a new­ly elect­ed sen­a­tor, real­ized the impor­tance of increas­ing his vis­i­bil­i­ty in the South­ern Unit­ed States and accept­ed the invi­ta­tion. The birth­day event, which includ­ed notable fig­ures such as Coret­ta Scott King and Har­ry Bela­fonte, was marked by a pal­pa­ble sense of excite­ment sur­round­ing Oba­ma’s poten­tial as a future pres­i­den­tial can­di­date. Lewis had been a tremen­dous source of inspi­ra­tion to Oba­ma over the years, with Oba­ma recall­ing a piv­otal moment when Lewis had offered words of encour­age­ment after Obama’s ear­ly pub­lic speak­ing engage­ment. This mutu­al respect and admi­ra­tion were evi­dent, mark­ing the begin­ning of their strong polit­i­cal and per­son­al bond.

As the 2007 Demo­c­ra­t­ic pri­maries approached, both Hillary Clin­ton and Barack Oba­ma launched cam­paigns that would require the endorse­ment of influ­en­tial fig­ures like John Lewis. The com­pe­ti­tion between the two can­di­dates grew increas­ing­ly tense, and both sought Lewis’s endorse­ment to solid­i­fy their posi­tions. One par­tic­u­lar­ly intense moment occurred dur­ing a Bloody Sun­day com­mem­o­ra­tion when both Clin­ton and Oba­ma sched­uled speech­es at near­ly the same time and loca­tion. This sit­u­a­tion cre­at­ed sig­nif­i­cant ten­sion for Lewis, who was caught between his long-stand­ing rela­tion­ship with Clin­ton and his desire for a new direc­tion in Amer­i­can pol­i­tics. While Lewis held deep respect for Clin­ton and their his­tor­i­cal ties, he was also drawn to Obama’s cam­paign, which embod­ied the val­ues of hope, change, and progress that were rem­i­nis­cent of the civ­il rights move­ment. This inter­nal strug­gle became a piv­otal point for Lewis as he con­tem­plat­ed the future of lead­er­ship and what kind of polit­i­cal change the coun­try need­ed.

As the pri­ma­ry sea­son pro­gressed, Obama’s cam­paign became increas­ing­ly aggres­sive in chal­leng­ing Clinton’s polit­i­cal cred­i­bil­i­ty, a strat­e­gy that ini­tial­ly caused fric­tion among her sup­port­ers. Despite the chal­lenges, Obama’s cam­paign gained momen­tum, and he began to dom­i­nate the con­ver­sa­tion in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic race. Mean­while, Lewis faced intense pres­sure from younger activists, many of whom crit­i­cized his loy­al­ty to the Clin­tons, ques­tion­ing whether he could tru­ly sup­port the future of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty with­out embrac­ing Obama’s can­di­da­cy. After care­ful reflec­tion, Lewis decid­ed to switch his endorse­ment from Clin­ton to Oba­ma, which he com­mu­ni­cat­ed pri­vate­ly to both Bill and Hillary Clin­ton. Though this deci­sion was emo­tion­al­ly com­plex, Lewis felt that Obama’s cam­paign sym­bol­ized a move­ment that reflect­ed the same prin­ci­ples of equal­i­ty and jus­tice that he had fought for dur­ing the civ­il rights era. This turn­ing point in Lewis’s polit­i­cal jour­ney under­scored the need for gen­er­a­tional change and the pow­er of new lead­er­ship in shap­ing the nation’s future.

The announce­ment of Lewis’s endorse­ment of Oba­ma was met with both excite­ment and con­tro­ver­sy. While his deci­sion was cel­e­brat­ed by many, it also faced back­lash from those who saw it as a betray­al of the Clin­tons. How­ev­er, Lewis’s endorse­ment came to sym­bol­ize the evo­lu­tion of polit­i­cal loy­al­ty and the abil­i­ty to adapt to chang­ing polit­i­cal land­scapes. For many, it was a reminder that polit­i­cal alliances are not sta­t­ic; they evolve as the needs and aspi­ra­tions of the nation change. In the after­math, Lewis’s endorse­ment helped fuel Obama’s momen­tum in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic pri­maries, show­ing how even the most stead­fast polit­i­cal rela­tion­ships can shift when con­front­ed with a vision for a bet­ter future. Ulti­mate­ly, Lewis’s deci­sion high­light­ed the impor­tance of stand­ing for jus­tice, equal­i­ty, and progress, just as he had done through­out his dis­tin­guished career, and it helped pave the way for Obama’s even­tu­al vic­to­ry in the race for the pres­i­den­cy.