WALKING IN THE WIND

By John Lewis

Introduction: As a young student, John Lewis worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and became a key leader of the civil rights movement in the United States. He later became a US congressman and a prominent voice for human rights and justice around the world. In the prologue to his memoir, Lewis tells a story from his childhood to describe his vision of how we can face profound challenges and make a better world.

1. Why was it important that "the people of conscience never left the house"?What do you think about Lewis's conviction that "another storm would come, and we would have to do it all over again"? What other examples of this sort of persistence have you encountered in this chapter? How do we sustain our commitment to issues we care about?