Adult Education Program: From Protest to Politics

Born into poverty in rural Alabama, John Lewis would become second only to Martin Luther King, Jr. in his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. He was a leader of the Nashville sit-in movement, a Freedom Rider who helped to integrate bus stations in the South, the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington, and the chairman of SNCC.

The talk will cover Lewis’s life from his youth as a precocious bookworm who sought education and freedom in the Jim Crow era, through the post-Civil Rights years, when he headed the Voter Education Project, which enrolled millions of African American voters across the South, and the little-known story of his political ascent first locally in Atlanta, and then as a member of Congress. Tapped to be a part of the Democratic leadership in Congress, he earned respect on both sides of the aisle for the sacrifices he had made on behalf of nonviolent integration in the South and came to be known as the “conscience of the Congress.”

About the Speaker
David Greenberg is a professor of History and of Journalism & Media Studies at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and a frequent commentator in the national news media on contemporary politics and public affairs. He specializes in American political and cultural history. His book on John Lewis, has been called “panoramic and richly insightful” by Brent Staples in the New York Times Book Review, and a book that “sets a new standard” for political biography. Formerly a full-time journalist, Prof. Greenberg is now a contributing editor to Politico Magazine, and he has written for Slate, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Daedalus, Dissent, Raritan, and many other scholarly and popular publications. He has received many awards and fellowships for his scholarship.

Please email the Program Planning Committee (Claudia Farber, Joyce Orenstein & Judy Stern) with your suggestions for speakers and/or programs, or to join our Committee and help plan our upcoming events!