We had played by the rules, done everything we were supposed to do . . . That loss of faith reached a nadir after the assassinations of King and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. Lewis had remained close to King through all the conflicts between S.N.C.C. and King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference. It was like trusting yourself to fall in love again after you've given your heart once and had it broken. . . . What remains most impressive in all of this is the consistent force of character that Lewis has demonstrated, from his experience of being responsible for the chickens in his childhood through being the head of S.N.C.C. to his current responsibilities as a Democratic Congressman from Georgia.
Firecrackers go off in a flash, then leave nothing but ashes.
Lewis clearly sees himself as a ''pilot light,'' using that characterization to distance himself from other more charismatic civil rights figures like Stokely Carmichael, and like Julian Bond, whom Lewis defeated in the 1986 election for the Congressional seat he now holds.