Walking with the Wind A Memoir of the Movement

The award-winning national bestseller, Walking with the Wind is one of the most important records of the American civil rights movement as told by a true American hero, John Lewis, who Cornel West called a "national treasure". An eloquent and gripping first-hand account of the turbulent struggle for civil rights and the willingness and courage to change the course of history, Forty years ago, a teenaged boy named John Lewis stepped off a cotton farm in Alabama and into the epicenter of the struggle for civil rights in America. The ideals of nonviolence which guided that critical time of American history established him as one of the movement's most charismatic and courageous leaders. Lewis's leadership in the Nashville Movement, a student-led effort to desegregate the city of Nashville using sit-in techniques based on the teachings of Gandhi, established him as one of the movement's defining figures and set the tone for the major civil rights campaigns of the 1960s. During this decade, he was repeatedly a victim of violence and intimidation, but his singular belief in non-violent action, inspired by his mentor, Dr. Martin Luther King, was a defining characteristic of his leadership and vision. In 1986, he ran and won a congressional seat in Georgia, and remains in office to this day. Walking with the Wind is the story of an American hero. A boy from rural Alabama whose journey led him to Washington, and whose vision and perseverance changed a nation.

The award-winning national bestseller, Walking with the Wind, is one of our most important records of the American civil rights movement. Told by John Lewis, who Cornel West calls a national treasure, this is a gripping first-hand account of the fight for civil rights and the courage it takes to change a nation.
In 1957, a teenaged boy named John Lewis left a cotton farm in Alabama for Nashville, the epicenter of the struggle for civil rights in America. Lewis adherence to nonviolence guided that critical time and established him as one of the movement s most charismatic and courageous leaders. Lewis s leadership in the Nashville Movement a student-led effort to desegregate the city of Nashville using sit-in techniques based on the teachings of Gandhi set the tone for major civil rights campaigns of the 1960s. Lewis traces his role in the pivotal Selma marches, Bloody Sunday, and the Freedom Rides. Inspired by his mentor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Lewis vision and perseverance altered history. In 1986, he ran and won a congressional seat in Georgia, and remains in office to this day, continuing to enact change.
The late Edward M. Kennedy said of Lewis, John tells it like it was Lewis spent most of his life walking against the wind of the times, but he was surely walking with the wind of history. "