Review: Across That Bridge by John Lewis
Representative John Lewis has been someone I have long been interested in. He was probably the third civil rights era activist I learned about after Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, I think he was talked about in a documentary my class watched on the lunch counter desegregations in the second grade, but I was very little, so I am not 100% sure that is where I became aware of him. You are not reading this for a personal history of my life though! I have read and absolutely adored Lewis's March graphic novel trilogy and eagerly await his 2021 series Run (I do hope it is still going to be published). Basically, John Lewis is a deeply interesting person, and I was lucky to have early and consistent exposure to him and his life.
I began to read this book about a week before Lewis died, then put it down for a while. Upon picking it back up, one of the first lines I read was:
When a person dies, the dream does not die. You can kill a man but the truth that he stood for will never die.
Which Lewis wrote about the assassinations of King, JFK, and Bobby Kennedy, obviously the wording puts King's legacy first in Lewis's sentiment, but he reminisced on the legacy each of these people, as well as many others, left upon his life. He also ruminated on the impact of their death and how he calls to mind the memories of others when he has made important decisions. It, of course, made me cry, but it also made me think that hopefully, people will be doing the same with the legacy of John Lewis.
This book is part recounting of parts of the civil rights movement but is mostly a dive into the philosophy of Lewis and other actors in the civil rights movement who both followed and pioneered civil resistance. It serves both as description of past victories and call to action to continue the fight for justice. The title, Across That Bridge, is apt for many reasons. The obvious being his crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday (you can look here to see the John Lewis Bridge Project which seeks to rename this bridge after him), but the title is also very fitting because core to Lewis's belief system is the fact that to make progress with any social issue you must first build a connection between those who wish to see change and those who are ignorant or actively against you. His philosophy espouses that education and the assertion of the human dignity of the oppressed are that builds that bridge. I am of course not stating this nearly as eloquently as Lewis did, I do hope you will read this book to get the full impact of his thoughts and experiences.
The book is well structured, written impeccably, educational, and is an incredibly quick read. I gave this book five stars and recommend it to everyone.
