Discuss what happened at the 1964 Democratic National Convention? Talk about how Lyndon Johnson's decision, or compromise, affected John Lewis and the momentum of the civil rights movement.ħ. What did he call for? Did the speech work? Would it have worked today? How did the Black Power movement undermine Lewis's goals?Ħ. In August, 1963, Lewis gave a speech as head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee at the March on Washington. What role did Lewis play in galvanizing the nation once Americans learned of the brutality meted out to demonstrators in Montgomery, Alabama?ĥ. What role did Lewis's faith play in his life, starting from the time he was a child? How did Martin Luther King Jr.'s sermon on the radio, entitled 'Paul's Letter to the American Christians' affect Lewis?Ĥ. What it was like to live in the Jim Crow South society of the 1940 ad 50s, as recalled to us by Lewis?ģ. In reading his memoir, how would you piece together, what John Lewis was like as a person? How did the events of his childhood affect his strength and passion to fight for civil rights in the 1960s-especially, as written in his memoir, growing up on the family farm in 'a small world, a safe world, filled with family and friends'? In what way did that safe environment propel him to become a leader in the Civil Rights movement? Consider, for instance, his reference to caring for the family's chickens and what ideals that instilled in him.Ģ. The quiet anonymity of pencil on paper was something I could do well, and that was my ticket out.Use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion of WALKING WITH THE WIND … then take off on your own:ġ. I was socially awkward, painfully self-conscious of how different I looked, and terrified of speaking up for fear of standing out. I grew up being ashamed of the hard work my mom did, ashamed of the second-hand clothes we got for free from the thrift shop we cleaned at night, and ashamed of myself. “Study hard for better life,” she’d say in broken English.

I recall her hands, cracked from the bleach, straightening out the creased dollar bills she earned cleaning houses in the evenings after work. My mom, a refugee and survivor of the Cambodian genocide, worked hard as a janitor, scrubbing toilets and mopping floors at Good Samaritan hospital. Growing up as an immigrant, it had been ingrained in me for as long as I could remember that succeeding in school was the key to a better life. Go to school, get good grades, and become a doctor. Up to that point, I had only one real focus.

Walking with the Wind by John Lewis