David Greenberg’s new biography, John Lewis: A Life, chronicles the remarkable story of the civil rights activist and congressman. Professor Kenneth Mack of Harvard University joins Greenberg for a discussion of Lewis’ life and impact on American history, whose heroism during the Civil Rights Movement helped inspire America’s new birth of freedom. Lana Ulrich, vice president of content and senior counsel at the National Constitution Center, moderates.
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Participants
David Greenberg is a professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University and a frequent commentator on historical and political affairs. Formerly acting editor of The New Republic and then a columnist for Slate, Greenberg now writes regularly for Politico, Liberties, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. He is the author or editor of several books on American history and politics, including Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image and Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency. His new book is John Lewis: A Life.
Kenneth Mack is the inaugural Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law and affiliate professor of history at Harvard University. He is also the co-faculty leader of the Harvard Law School program on law and history. He is the author of Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer as well as co-editor of In Between and Across: Legal History Without Boundaries and The New Black: What Has Changed – And What Has Not – With Race in America. He has taught at Harvard, Stanford, and Georgetown Universities, and the University of Hawai’i, and has served as senior visiting scholar at the Centre for History and Economics at University of Cambridge.
Lana Ulrich is the vice president of content and senior counsel at the National Constitution Center. As the Center’s vice president of content, she manages the Center’s constitutional content and programming initiatives, including podcasts, America's Town Hall programs, museum exhibits, and online content such as the Interactive Constitution and the Constitution Daily blog. As the Center’s senior counsel, she assists with any legal matters relating to the Center's operations.
Additional Resources
- 2016 Liberty Medal Ceremony in honor of Representative John Lewis
- David Greenberg, John Lewis: A Life (2024)
- “Rep. John Lewis on MLK and ‘Good Trouble,’” Live at the National Constitution Center podcast (Jan. 2020)
- Boynton v. Virginia (1960)
- Civil Rights Era documents selected by Kenneth Mack and Christopher Brooks, NCC Founders’ Library
- Kenneth Mack, Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer (2012)
- Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
- Bayard Rustin, “From Protest to Politics: The Future of the Civil Rights Movement”
- Voting Rights Act (1965)
- John Lewis, Remarks at the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (2016)
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