In search of the Beloved Community: Remembering Congressman John Lewis

Florida Matters

In this episode of Florida Matters, we speak to Florida historian Raymond Arsenault about his biography of the late Congressman John Lewis. Lewis spent a lifetime fighting for equality. When the Georgia representative died in 2020, aged 80, America had changed profoundly from when Lewis fought for desegregation as a young civil rights activist. Lewis himself sometimes marveled at the remarkable journey his life took from the deep segregated South to the halls of Congress. While much has changed, America still faces challenges at home and abroad, and threats remain to issues that Lewis held dear, like voting rights and social justice. Raymond Arsenault has spent much of his career speaking with and writing about those at the center of the civil rights movement, including John Lewis. Arsenault is the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History Emeritus at the University of South Florida, and is co-founder and senior scholar of the University of South Florida’s Florida Studies Program. His new biography is "John Lewis, In Search of the Beloved Community."