Walking With The Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by John Lewis– Book Review by Julie Ahn Mar 22 by joana galarza johnson For a boy who grew up in the cotton farms of Alabama, to now a sixth-term United States Congressman, John Lewis led an extraordinary life that helped changed American history.
- John Lewis, the civil rights activist who would go on to become a long-serving congressman and whose death this summer provoked a national outpouring of grief, woke up in Selma, Ala., on March 7.
- Senator John McCain has written a moving tribute to John Lewis in his book Why Courage Matters. Congressman Lewis gives his own account of his experiences in the Civil Rights era in Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, published in 1998.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama publisher has released the memoir of the late civil rights leader C.T. Vivian of Atlanta months after his death.
In his remarkable memoir of the movement, “Walking with the Wind,” Lewis recalled the approach of the troopers on what came to be known as Bloody Sunday: “The clunk of the troopers’ heavy. Congressman Lewis gives his own account of his experiences in the Civil Rights era in Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, published in 1998.
The Montgomery-based NewSouth Books said “It’s in the Action: Memories of a Nonviolent Warrior” is now available. Vivian wrote the 224-page book with Steve Fiffer before his death last year.
Vivian began organizing sit-ins against segregation in the 1940s in Illinois and later joined forces with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who rose to prominence while leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and 1956.
In 1965, Vivian led dozens of marchers to a courthouse in Selma, where he was punched by then-Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark. News coverage of the assault helped turn a local registration drive into a national issue.
Vivian died in July at the age of 95. He was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.
The book includes a forward by former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, who worked with Vivian in the civil rights movement.
Overview
John Lewis Memorial
Those words describe the moment when Private John Lewis Barkley first grasped the grim reality of the war he had entered. The rest of Barkley's memoir, first published in 1930 as No Hard Feelings and long out of print, provides a vivid ground-level look at World War I through the eyes of a soldier whose exploits rivaled those of Sergeant York.
A reconnaissance man and sniper, Barkley served in Company K of the 4th Infantry Regiment, a unit that participated in almost every major American battle. The York-like episode that earned Barkley his Congressional Medal of Honor occurred on October 7, 1918, when he climbed into an abandoned French tank and singlehandedly held off an advancing German force, killing hundreds of enemy soldiers. But Barkley's memoir abounds with other memorable moments and vignettes, all in the words of a soldier who witnessed war's dangers and degradations but was not at all fazed by them.
Unlike other writers identified with the 'Lost Generation,' he relished combat and made no apology for having dispatched scores of enemy soldiers; yet he was as much an innocent abroad as a killing machine, as witnessed by second thoughts over his sniper's role, or by his determination to protect a youthful German prisoner from American soldiers eager for retribution. This Missouri backwoodsman and sharpshooter was also a bit of a troublemaker who smuggled liquor into camp, avoided promotions like the plague, and had a soft heart for mademoiselles and frauleins alike.
In his valuable introduction to this stirring memoir, Steven Trout helps readers to better grasp the historical context and significance of this singular hero's tale from one of our most courageous doughboys. Both haunting and heartfelt, inspiring and entertaining, Scarlet Fields is a long overlooked gem that opens a new window on our nation's experience in World War I and brings back to life a bygone era.