As a child, Congressman John Lewis, the son of sharecroppers from Pike County, Alabama, was turned away from his local public library—it was for whites only. He didn’t return until 1998, when he was invited to a book signing for his memoir, “Walking with the Wind.” At the 2015 New Yorker Festival, Lewis spoke with David Remnick about his early days in the civil-rights movement, his interactions with Malcolm X and John F. Kennedy, and how he survives in Congress alongside colleagues who “hate government.”
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Daily Comment
The Pope Goes Prime-Time
Pope Francis’s appearance on “60 Minutes” is a first. What does it say about the papacy?
By Paul Elie
The Political Scene
The Two-Pronged Attack on a Muslim Judicial Nominee
How the smearing of Adeel Mangi became a bipartisan exercise.
By Jonathan Blitzer
Under Review
The Journalist Biography in an Age of Crisis
A memoir by Nicholas Kristof and a biography of Barbara Walters invoke halcyon days in the news business. What can we learn from their lives?
By Krithika Varagur
Photo Booth
What Asian America Meant to Corky Lee
A new anthology by Chinatown’s omnipresent documentarian, who captured half a century of shifting identities, activism, and daily life.
By E. Tammy Kim