Books-A-Million Announces Latest President’s Pick: Jon Meacham’s “His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope”

Inspiring portrait of civil rights icon to hit Books-A-Million shelves and website August 25; live virtual Q&A with the author to be held on August 27

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Books-A-Million is honored to unveil its latest President’s Pick – Jon Meacham’s moving look at late civil rights icon, “His Truth Is Marching on: John Lewis and the Power of Hope.” From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Soul of America,” the book will be released on August 25 at Books-A-Million, and fans can now pre-order a copy online at booksamillion.com. A comprehensive list of President’s Pick titles can be found at booksamillion.com/presidentpick.

The President’s Pick collection is a compilation of new books that have been personally selected throughout the years by Books-A-Million CEO Terrance G. Finley.

“This is a powerful story told by a powerful writer. The highlighter got a workout today,” said Finley. “I hope this book will be read by many, but I long for it to be read by all of those who have come of age in the shadow of this history.”

Author Jon Meacham will host a not-to-be-missed virtual author event with Books-A-Million ticketed guests on August 27 at 6 p.m. CDT, during which readers can ask the author questions and enjoy live answers from Mr. Meacham. The $37 registration fee includes a signed copy of the book, which will be shipped following the event. Fans can register here.

John Lewis, who at age twenty-five marched in Selma, Alabama, and was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, was a visionary and a man of faith. Drawing on decades of wide-ranging interviews with Lewis, Jon Meacham writes of how this great-grandson of a slave and son of an Alabama tenant farmer was inspired by the Bible and his teachers in nonviolence, Reverend James Lawson and Martin Luther King, Jr., to put his life on the line in the service of what Abraham Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.” From an early age, Lewis learned that nonviolence was not only a tactic but a philosophy, a biblical imperative and a transforming reality. At the age of four, Lewis, ambitious to become a minister, practiced by preaching to his family's chickens. When his mother cooked one of the chickens, the boy refused to eat it – his first act, he wryly recalled, of nonviolent protest. Integral to Lewis's commitment to bettering the nation was his faith in humanity and in God – and an unshakable belief in the power of hope.

Meacham calls Lewis “as important to the founding of a modern and multiethnic twentieth- and twenty-first-century America as Thomas Jefferson James Madison and Samuel Adams were to the initial creation of the Republic itself in the eighteenth century.” A believer in the injunction that one should love one's neighbor as oneself, Lewis was arguably a saint in our time, risking limb and life to bear witness for the powerless in the face of the powerful. In many ways he brought a still-evolving nation closer to realizing its ideals, and his story offers inspiration and illumination for Americans today who are working for social and political change.

To preorder a copy of “His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope,” visit booksamillion.com/presidentpick.

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Books-A-Million, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is the second largest bookseller in the United States. Books-A-Million began over 100 years ago in 1917 as a newsstand in Florence, Alabama and now operates over 200 stores in 32 states and online at booksamillion.com. As Books-A-Million’s market presence has grown, the goal has remained the same: to serve each community with the best selection of books, toys, games and entertainment, all at great prices. Find the nearest Books-A-Million at booksamillion.com/storefinder. Follow Books-A-Million on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest to discover shelf inspiration, new releases, gifts and more.