In Decem­ber 1976, Atlanta pol­i­tics trans­formed fol­low­ing Jim­my Carter’s elec­tion. Imme­di­ate­ly after his vic­to­ry, Carter appoint­ed Andrew Young as ambas­sador to the Unit­ed Nations, spark­ing a scram­ble for Young’s con­gres­sion­al seat. Among the poten­tial can­di­dates were Ralph Aber­nathy, Joseph Low­ery, and John Lewis, who ini­tial­ly hes­i­tat­ed about run­ning, fear­ing Young’s res­ig­na­tion would endan­ger African Amer­i­can rep­re­sen­ta­tion in Con­gress.

How­ev­er, as time passed, Lewis rec­og­nized the oppor­tu­ni­ty along­side his wife Lil­lian, who believed he had the poten­tial for high­er office. Their adop­tion of a new­born son, John-Miles, fur­ther ignit­ed her ambi­tions for John, who had already gained a good rep­u­ta­tion through his work with the VEP. Lil­lian became active­ly involved in his polit­i­cal ambi­tions, urg­ing him to seize this chance and pur­sue a con­gres­sion­al seat.

As Lewis’s cam­paign com­menced, he enjoyed respect from both Black and white pow­er struc­tures in Atlanta, earn­ing praise for his integri­ty amidst strife in the SCLC fol­low­ing Mar­tin Luther King Jr.‘s death. Lewis was viewed as the nat­ur­al suc­ces­sor, evi­dent at a Decem­ber gath­er­ing at Paschal’s, where Young expressed his inten­tions to remain neu­tral while sub­tly sup­port­ing Lewis.

On Decem­ber 21, Lewis offi­cial­ly declared his can­di­da­cy. Though his uplift­ing mes­sage of racial har­mo­ny res­onat­ed in a city com­ing to terms with its his­to­ry, he did not lead the polls. His main oppo­nent was Wyche Fowler, the more estab­lished white city coun­cil pres­i­dent who had pre­vi­ous­ly lost to Young. The com­pli­cat­ed dynam­ics of race and rep­re­sen­ta­tion loomed large in the con­text of the Fifth Dis­trict, com­prised of 60 per­cent white vot­ers. Sus­tain­ing Black rep­re­sen­ta­tion became imper­a­tive in light of Young’s pre­vi­ous suc­cess­es.

As the cam­paign pro­gressed, Lewis faced sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges, notably a lack of finan­cial sup­port and expe­ri­ence in polit­i­cal office. While he focused on pol­i­cy dif­fer­ences with Fowler, he strug­gled to con­nect with vot­ers, reveal­ing a per­ceived lack of charis­ma and ora­to­ry skills. His ini­tial mis­steps includ­ed an ill-fat­ed press event for Black reporters that attract­ed lit­tle atten­tion, high­light­ing the campaign’s inex­pe­ri­ence.

Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, Lewis encoun­tered resis­tance from rival Black can­di­dates, includ­ing Aber­nathy and vot­ers ques­tion­ing his ties to estab­lished Black lead­er­ship. Despite these pres­sures, Lewis aimed to demon­strate he rep­re­sent­ed all con­stituents by pro­mot­ing an inclu­sive agen­da while nav­i­gat­ing the com­plex racial land­scape of his can­di­da­cy.

Ulti­mate­ly, elec­toral intri­ca­cies and pub­lic per­cep­tions shaped Lewis’s path, with his cam­paign marked by hard work and earnest­ness. He aimed to prove him­self as a uni­fy­ing can­di­date who could bridge divides. As the final vote approached, the cam­paign faced sev­er­al adver­si­ties, includ­ing bur­glar­ies and strug­gles to mobi­lize white vot­ers.

While Lewis’s mes­sage of uni­ty and inclu­siv­i­ty posi­tioned him as a con­tender, it was evi­dent that chal­leng­ing Fowler in a pre­dom­i­nate­ly white dis­trict posed sig­nif­i­cant obsta­cles. In the end, despite an uphill fight and a spir­it­ed cam­paign, Lewis fin­ished with near­ly 29 per­cent of the vote, falling short to Fowler’s gain of over 60 per­cent on Elec­tion Day. Though dis­ap­point­ed, Lewis remained opti­mistic about future oppor­tu­ni­ties.