Walking with the Wind

Michael D’Orso is an American author and journalist. He has written 16 narrative nonfiction books on various subjects, including politics, racial conflict, social justice, and football. He has received several honors for his work, including the Lillian Smith Book Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. Eight of his books, including Walking with the Wind, have been bestsellers. His work has been featured in several different media outlets, including Time, Forbes, Newsweek, The New Yorker, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Boston Globe.

Closest friend and advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Reverend Abernathy was the pastor of Montgomery’s First Baptist Church and a towering figure in the CRM. Lewis first met Reverend Abernathy when Lewis’s application to Troy University was ignored. Lewis and Abernathy’s paths crossed many times, as both were involved in many of the major CRM events.

On his first day at the American Baptist Theological Seminary, Lewis met James Bevel, a Navy veteran from Mississippi. Bevel, who had a profound influence on Lewis’s life, was a gifted preacher who “could make you think” (61) and “loved nothing more than stirring the pot, rubbing somebody the wrong way just to see what would happen” (61). Bevel was a carousing young man, but became more focused when he joined the nonviolent protest movement. He eventually married Diane Nash, a fellow civil rights activist. A leader within SCLC, Bevel helped organize the Nashville lunch-counter sit-ins, the second attempt at the Freedom Rides, and the Children’s Crusade. Sadly, his behavior turned increasingly erratic, leading to his expulsion from the SCLC in the summer of 1970.

Julian Bond, the leader of SNCC’s Atlanta branch, met Lewis at SNCC’s fall conference in 1960. Lewis notes, “His father had been a college president. Julian had grown up in an environment of books and thoughts, but he didn’t let any of that get in the way of his humanity or his heart” (119). Despite coming from wildly different backgrounds, the two became good friends, traveling throughout the South to encourage Black people to register to vote. They became political rivals in 1986 when both ran for Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District seat. After Lewis beat Bond, it would take many years for them to reconcile their friendship.

Stokely Carmichael grew up in Harlem. Lewis describes Carmichael as someone who “either mesmerized you or irritated you; there was no middle ground” (177). Carmichael was more radical than Lewis, and became militant after President Johnson meddled in the MFDP’s attempts to gain seats in 1964. Carmichael came to believe that meaningful change for the Black community would only come through Black political power. In contrast to Lewis, Carmichael wanted the SNCC to become renounce nonviolence. He would win, albeit questionably, the SNCC chairman election over Lewis in 1966.

Bull Connor, or “Ole Bull” (148) as his friends called him, was a staunch segregationist and the police commissioner of Montgomery, Alabama. He made it his personal mission to stop desegregation from occurring in his city, attacking peaceful protests with dogs and fire hoses and driving Lewis and other freedom riders into Ku Klux Klan territory.

James Farmer was a founder and first national chairman of CORE. Farmer was one of the masterminds of the Freedom Rides and played an instrumental role in organizing the March on Washington. Along with Lewis, Farmer was considered one of the “Big Six” leaders of the CRM.

A native of Montgomery, Alabama, Fred Gray was a civil rights attorney who represented Rosa Parks and Dr. King. He would become one of the first Black members of the Alabama House of Representatives.

Fannie Lou Hamer is one of the unsung heroes of the CRM. Coming from a humble Mississippi background, Hamer attended a SNCC meeting led by Bevel in the summer of 1961, which inspired her to get involved in fighting for Black people’s right to vote. Her employer fired her for attempting to vote and she was beaten so badly during one of the protests that she never fully recovered from her injuries. Hamer helped organize Freedom Summer and gave the most moving testimony at the National Democratic Convention in Atlantic City. Mrs. Hamer always emphasized that student leaders needed to build relationships with communities and be willing to stay for the long haul to fight for desegregation.

After Kennedy’s assassination, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson became President from 1963 to 1969. He had a complicated relationship with the CRM and its leaders. While he helped advance critical legislation, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Johnson often chose political expediency over the movement’s goals. For example, he supported the Democratic Convention’s refusal to seat MFDP delegates over fears that seating them would cost him votes in the South. As a result, Black activists and community members lost faith in the political process, either leaving the movement or becoming militant.

Dr. King was the most visible leader of the CRM from the 1950s until his assassination. He profoundly impacted Lewis’s life. Lewis had not been able to voice his frustrations with the political and economic situation in the American South, until he heard Dr. King’s words over the radio. Dr. King’s focus on the social gospel inspired Lewis become a preacher and get involved with the CRM. More importantly, Dr. King was not just a mentor to Lewis, but also a friend and brother. Lewis believed that Dr. King’s assassination, along with Bobby Kennedy’s, so profoundly damaged the American public that we still have not recovered from this loss of leadership.

Eddie Lewis, Lewis’s father, was born on April 23, 1909 in Pike County, Alabama. He was a sharecropper, or tenant farmer, until he raised enough money to purchase his own 110-acre farm in 1944 when John Lewis was four years old—one of the first Black men in the county to purchase his own land.

Willie Mae Lewis, Lewis’s mother, was born on June 13, 1914 in Pike County, Alabama. Her parents were Dink and Bessie Carter. Willie had a very strong work ethic, and Lewis credits his mother’s incredible spirit with giving him the strength to become a leader in the civil rights movement.

James Lawson, a mentor to the Nashville Student Movement, had a profound impact on Lewis’s life. Lewis attended Lawson’s weekly workshops on the theories and practices of nonviolence. These workshops would eventually guide Lewis to the forefront of the CRM.