The book begins in March 2020 with a commemoration of the march on the Edmund Pettis Bridge, 55 years after the original event. John Lewis, who co-led the march in 1965, is there to mark the anniversary and speak to the crowd. Now 80 years old and fighting cancer, he still summons the energy to participate. Although he and his fellow marchers were beaten that day by Alabama state troopers, the day’s events helped rally political support for the Voting Rights Act pushed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, which was passed only months later.

Meacham argues that Lewis’s work and beliefs make him both a hero and a saint. He put into action the ideals of justice and was willing to suffer—even die—for his beliefs. As Meacham writes, “The world was one way before John Lewis came out of Pike County and into the maelstrom of history, and it was another way when he was done” (6). He emphasizes how religion was central to Lewis’s struggle and his work. Above all, Lewis was hopeful and optimistic, certain that justice could be attained and willing to continue the fight for it into the future.