In the chap­ter titled “Pho­tographs,” read­ers are pre­sent­ed with a rich col­lec­tion of images that illus­trate the remark­able jour­ney of John Lewis, one of the most sig­nif­i­cant fig­ures in the civ­il rights move­ment. The pho­tographs pro­vide not just a glimpse of his life but a visu­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the many bat­tles fought for racial jus­tice, equal­i­ty, and free­dom. Span­ning decades, the images take us from his ear­ly years through to his lat­er years as a con­gress­man, giv­ing an inti­mate and com­pre­hen­sive view of his tire­less ded­i­ca­tion to social change.

1. Ear­ly Begin­nings: The jour­ney begins with a touch­ing pho­to­graph of a young John Lewis, cap­tured in the ear­ly 1950s. Anoth­er fam­i­ly pho­to tak­en in the 1970s, show­ing the ten Lewis sib­lings, pro­vides a deep­er under­stand­ing of his roots, high­light­ing the close-knit and sup­port­ive fam­i­ly envi­ron­ment that played a piv­otal role in shap­ing his char­ac­ter. These pho­tographs offer a sense of the val­ues instilled in him from an ear­ly age, with love and resilience at their core.

2. Activism in Action: The chap­ter then tran­si­tions to some of the most icon­ic moments of activism that defined John Lewis’s career. A strik­ing pho­to­graph from the 1960 Nashville sit-ins shows a young Lewis in the heat of the civ­il rights strug­gle, stand­ing side by side with oth­er notable fig­ures like C.T. Vivian, Diane Nash, and Bernard LaFayette. This image cap­tures the unwa­ver­ing spir­it of non­vi­o­lent resis­tance and the pow­er­ful sol­i­dar­i­ty of indi­vid­u­als com­mit­ted to chal­leng­ing sys­temic racism.

3. Free­dom Rides and Resilience: One of the most poignant images of John Lewis dur­ing his time as a Free­dom Rid­er is fea­tured next. The pho­to­graph shows Lewis stand­ing along­side Jim Zwerg, anoth­er Free­dom Rid­er, imme­di­ate­ly after a bru­tal mob assault in Mont­gomery, Alaba­ma. This har­row­ing image under­scores the phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al toll of the Free­dom Rides but also exem­pli­fies the resilience and deter­mi­na­tion of the young activists involved, who faced dan­ger to demand their rights.

4. A Sym­bol of Lead­er­ship: As Lewis rose to promi­nence with­in the Stu­dent Non­vi­o­lent Coor­di­nat­ing Com­mit­tee (SNCC), his lead­er­ship con­tin­ued to shine through in var­i­ous pho­tographs. One of the most pow­er­ful images cap­tures him kneel­ing dur­ing a protest in Cairo, Illi­nois, sym­bol­iz­ing his com­mit­ment to peace­ful resis­tance. Anoth­er pho­to­graph from a SNCC folk fes­ti­val, with per­for­mances by artists like Bob Dylan, shows the cul­tur­al inte­gra­tion of activism, where music and pol­i­tics inter­sect­ed to strength­en the move­ment.

5. The March on Wash­ing­ton and Mile­stones: The pho­tographs then turn to the mon­u­men­tal March on Wash­ing­ton in 1963, a piv­otal moment in the civ­il rights move­ment. A par­tic­u­lar­ly strik­ing image shows Lewis, just before his speech, review­ing his notes, a can­did moment that high­lights the seri­ous­ness and weight of his words. His speech at the march was one of the most influ­en­tial of the day, and this pho­to­graph empha­sizes the grav­i­ty of the moment as Lewis pre­pared to speak out against injus­tice.

6. The Tragedy of Bloody Sun­day: One of the most dra­mat­ic sec­tions of the chap­ter is devot­ed to the images from Bloody Sun­day, a trag­ic yet piv­otal moment in the strug­gle for vot­ing rights. The images depict the bru­tal attack on marchers, includ­ing John Lewis, by Alaba­ma state troop­ers on the Edmund Pet­tus Bridge in Sel­ma, Alaba­ma. These images cap­ture the inten­si­ty of the vio­lence and the sheer courage of those who marched that day, spark­ing nation­al out­rage and push­ing the nation clos­er to pass­ing the Vot­ing Rights Act.

7. Endur­ing Lega­cy: The chap­ter con­cludes with images from Lewis’s lat­er years, reflect­ing his con­tin­ued work in pub­lic ser­vice and his unyield­ing com­mit­ment to the cause of jus­tice. Pho­tographs of Lewis meet­ing with fig­ures like Pres­i­dents Lyn­don B. John­son and Barack Oba­ma empha­size his last­ing influ­ence on Amer­i­can pol­i­tics and civ­il rights. His lega­cy is fur­ther under­scored in an image from his final vis­it to Black Lives Mat­ter Plaza in 2020, short­ly before his pass­ing, a tes­ta­ment to his life­long fight for equal­i­ty and human dig­ni­ty.

The chap­ter’s pow­er­ful col­lec­tion of pho­tographs offers not only a visu­al his­to­ry of John Lewis’s life but also a deep­er under­stand­ing of the civ­il rights move­ment. Each image tells a sto­ry of strug­gle, resilience, and tri­umph, cap­tur­ing both the per­son­al and polit­i­cal mile­stones of a man whose lega­cy will con­tin­ue to inspire gen­er­a­tions. Through these pho­tographs, the read­er is remind­ed of the impor­tance of stand­ing up for what is right, of the pow­er of col­lec­tive action, and of the unwa­ver­ing spir­it of those who fight for jus­tice and equal­i­ty.