The chap­ter titled “Pho­tographs” presents a series of impact­ful images that encap­su­late sig­nif­i­cant moments in John Lewis’s life and con­tri­bu­tions to the civ­il rights move­ment. Each pho­to­graph is accom­pa­nied by a brief cap­tion, pro­vid­ing con­text and detail­ing the events depict­ed.

1. **Ear­ly Years**: The chap­ter begins with an image of a young John Lewis from around 1951, fol­lowed by a nos­tal­gic pho­to­graph of the ten Lewis sib­lings like­ly tak­en in the ear­ly 1970s, high­light­ing his fam­i­ly back­ground.

2. **Activism in Action**: The nar­ra­tive con­tin­ues with his­tor­i­cal moments of activism, includ­ing the Jan­u­ary 1960 lunch-counter sit-ins in Nashville, where Lewis was active­ly involved. Key fig­ures, such as C. T. Vivian, Diane Nash, and Bernard LaFayette lead events like the march on city hall in April 1960.

3. **Free­dom Rides**: Anoth­er sig­nif­i­cant pho­to­graph doc­u­ments Lewis with fel­low Free­dom Rid­er Jim Zwerg, fea­tur­ing the after­math of a mob assault in Mont­gomery, Alaba­ma. Lewis’s resilience is fur­ther high­light­ed in a press con­fer­ence after the Free­dom Rides, where he appears with notable lead­ers like Mar­tin Luther King Jr.

4. **Lega­cy of Lead­er­ship**: The imagery hosts moments that sig­ni­fy Lewis’s con­tin­u­ous role with­in the Stu­dent Non­vi­o­lent Coor­di­nat­ing Com­mit­tee (SNCC). For instance, a pho­to­graph show­cas­es him kneel­ing in Cairo, Illi­nois, dur­ing a protest that became icon­ic, and anoth­er cap­tures the vibran­cy of SNC­C’s folk fes­ti­val fea­tur­ing per­for­mances from artists like Bob Dylan.

5. **Civ­il Rights Mile­stones**: The chap­ter pro­gress­es to cru­cial civ­il rights mile­stones, includ­ing the leg­endary March on Wash­ing­ton in 1963. Lewis’s emo­tions are pal­pa­ble in a pho­to­graph where he is seen edit­ing his speech, which was con­sid­ered the most “mil­i­tant” of the day.

6. **March Across Sel­ma**: A piv­otal series of images doc­u­ment the Bloody Sun­day march across Sel­ma’s Edmund Pet­tus Bridge on March 7, 1965, illus­trat­ing the vio­lence faced by marchers, cul­mi­nat­ing in the trau­mat­ic injury Lewis endured at the hands of state troop­ers. This day notably gal­va­nized nation­al sup­port for vot­ing rights.

7. **Lat­er Years and Lega­cy**: The chap­ter con­cludes with pho­tographs that chron­i­cle Lewis’s lat­er endeav­ors, includ­ing his run for Con­gress, his inter­ac­tions with polit­i­cal lead­ers like Lyn­don John­son, and his ongo­ing com­mit­ment to activism well into the 21st cen­tu­ry. Mem­o­rable images cap­ture him in moments of cel­e­bra­tion, reflec­tion, and con­tin­ued advo­ca­cy against racial injus­tice, cul­mi­nat­ing in his vis­it to Black Lives Mat­ter Plaza in 2020 short­ly before his pass­ing.

This col­lec­tion of pho­tographs pro­vides not only a visu­al his­to­ry of Lewis’s life but also serves as a tes­ta­ment to his unwa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion to civ­il rights and social jus­tice advo­ca­cy through­out sev­er­al piv­otal moments of Amer­i­can his­to­ry.