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The Stained Glass Window: A Family History as the American Story, 1790-1958
National Humanities Medal recipient and two-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize David Levering Lewis's own family history that shifts our understanding of the larger American story
Sitting beneath a stained-glass window dedicated to his grandmother in the Atlanta church where his family had prayed for generations, it struck Lewis that he knew very little about those ancestors. And so, in his mid-80s, the esteemed historian began to excavate their past and his own.
We know that there is no singular, quintessential American story. Yet, the Lewis family contains many defining ones. His lineage leads him to the Kings and Belvinses, two white slaveholding families in Georgia; to the Bells, a mulatto slaveholding family in South Carolina; and to the Lewises, an up-from-slavery black family in Georgia. In The Stained-Glass Window, Lewis is heir and chronicler of them all.
His father, John Henry Lewis, Sr. set Lewis on the path he would doggedly pursue, introducing him to W.E.B. Du Bois and living by example as an aid to Thurgood Marshall in a key civil rights case in Little Rock. In The Stained-Glass Widow, Lewis reckons with his legacy in full, facing his ancestors and all that was lost, all the doors that were closed to them.
In this country, the bonds of kinship and the horrific fetters of slavery are themselves bound up together. The fight for equity, the loud echoes of the antebellum project in our present, and narratives of exceptionalism are ever with us—in these pages, so too are the voices of Clarissa, Isaac, Hattie, Alice, and John who have shaped this nation and will transform the way we see it.
Sitting beneath a stained-glass window dedicated to his grandmother in the Atlanta church where his family had prayed for generations, it struck Lewis that he knew very little about those ancestors. And so, in his mid-80s, the esteemed historian began to excavate their past and his own.
We know that there is no singular, quintessential American story. Yet, the Lewis family contains many defining ones. His lineage leads him to the Kings and Belvinses, two white slaveholding families in Georgia; to the Bells, a mulatto slaveholding family in South Carolina; and to the Lewises, an up-from-slavery black family in Georgia. In The Stained-Glass Window, Lewis is heir and chronicler of them all.
His father, John Henry Lewis, Sr. set Lewis on the path he would doggedly pursue, introducing him to W.E.B. Du Bois and living by example as an aid to Thurgood Marshall in a key civil rights case in Little Rock. In The Stained-Glass Widow, Lewis reckons with his legacy in full, facing his ancestors and all that was lost, all the doors that were closed to them.
In this country, the bonds of kinship and the horrific fetters of slavery are themselves bound up together. The fight for equity, the loud echoes of the antebellum project in our present, and narratives of exceptionalism are ever with us—in these pages, so too are the voices of Clarissa, Isaac, Hattie, Alice, and John who have shaped this nation and will transform the way we see it.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published February 11, 2025
38 people are currently reading
662 people want to read
About the author
David Levering Lewis
43 books62 followersDavid Levering Lewis is the Julius Silver University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at New York University.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 17, 2025
It's interesting to see how a professional would go about learning the history of his ancestors in America. You can imagine traveling around the South and visiting museums, libraries and historical societies with the author.
The story of the his family is told alongside what was going on in America and the states and local areas where the members were living at the time. I was aware of slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but this book taught me a lot more about important events in Georgia, South Carolina and the U.S. from the 1700s to 20th century.
The story of the his family is told alongside what was going on in America and the states and local areas where the members were living at the time. I was aware of slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but this book taught me a lot more about important events in Georgia, South Carolina and the U.S. from the 1700s to 20th century.
March 4, 2025
It was excellent
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 8, 2025
History written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning professor emeritus of history at NYU is too deep for me, but I appreciate the scholarship involved in Lewis’s family saga.
March 25, 2025
Extremely detailed account of Lewis's journey of discovering his roots mixed in with the history of Black America from slavery to Civil Rights to now.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews