David Levering Lewis explores family history in 'The Stained Glass Window'

Pulitzer-winning historian uncovers his ancestry and America’s racial past in a compelling new book.

Illustration by Jena Ardell

By Hayu Andini

The Stained Glass Window: A Family History as the American Story, 1790-1958, by David Levering Lewis

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Levering Lewis embarks on a deeply personal journey in The Stained Glass Window, blending narrative history, family chronicle, and memoir. Inspired by a stained-glass window in an Atlanta church where his family worshiped for generations, Lewis uncovers a forgotten past that illuminates the broader African American experience. The window, crafted by Black artisans more than a century ago, features an image of his grandmother, Alice King Bell, and symbolizes both personal discovery and the shifting interpretation of America’s racial history.

The book represents Lewis’s attempt to fill in gaps in his own ancestry, a project undertaken amid his illustrious scholarly career, which includes a two-volume biography of W.E.B. Du Bois. His research leads him to archives and distant family sites, piecing together the untold struggles and triumphs of his ancestors.

Uncovering a lost history

Lewis’s exploration begins with his great-grandmother, Clarissa King, whom he identifies in historical records as part of a $1,425 sale in 1852. The young enslaved woman, known in some documents as “Claricey,” served as a maid before the Civil War and remained in a “privileged inferior status” on the plantation afterward. The legacy of slavery was evident in the generational transitions that followed, as she received a deed to a valuable parcel of land in Atlanta—ironically linked to the family of Leo Frank, the Jewish factory manager who was later lynched in a notorious case of antisemitic violence.

His family’s history took a significant turn when Alice King Bell, the woman in the stained-glass window, married John Henry Bell, a postman and church deacon from a lineage of free Black people in the Carolina Low Country. Their lives, marked by aspiration and systemic racial barriers, reflect the broader struggle of African Americans navigating segregation and discrimination.

A lineage of resilience

Throughout the book, Lewis introduces readers to key figures in his family’s history. His great-grandfather, George Wesley Smith, hid in the woods to escape vigilantes angered by his support for Ulysses S. Grant’s presidential campaign. His grandmother, Harriet Virtue Cunningham Smith Lewis, ran a general store in Georgia and financed her son’s education. His “Uncle Doc” became a prominent physician. His father twice served as president of Morris Brown College and worked as dean at the Payne Theological Seminary in Ohio. His mother, a devoted educator, joined the NAACP in 1917 after Atlanta officials attempted to terminate schooling for Black children beyond seventh grade.

Lewis also mines his own memories, recalling how his mother recited Justice John Marshall Harlan’s dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, a prophetic warning about the dangers of segregation. His father’s anecdotes about Yale Divinity School in the early 20th century reveal the culture shock of being one of the few Black students in a predominantly white institution.

A scholar’s journey

Lewis’s own life was shaped by intellectual rigor and an early exposure to history and literature. Home-schooled by his mother, he developed an exceptional memory that compensated for his early struggle with reading. At just 15, he enrolled at Fisk University, where he majored in history and philosophy before pursuing graduate studies at Columbia University under prominent scholars like Jacques Barzun and Fritz Stern. He later earned his Ph.D. at the London School of Economics, establishing himself as a leading historian.

Despite his academic achievements, Lewis’s personal journey in The Stained Glass Window is one of self-discovery. The book serves as both a historical record and a reflection on the enduring impact of slavery, segregation, and racial injustice. He argues that “American slavery functioned as a vast concentration camp,” fueling the economic rise of the North and laying the foundation for the country’s industrial success.

A powerful meditation on history and identity

Through extensive research and introspection, Lewis paints a vivid portrait of his ancestors and their role in the broader historical landscape. The book underscores how African Americans have been both victims of systemic oppression and powerful critics of the nation’s failures. The Stained Glass Window is a searing exploration of race, memory, and the enduring fight for justice.

Lewis’s journey of over 300 pages, sparked by a single glimpse of a church window, is a testament to the power of historical inquiry. His work ensures that the stories of his ancestors—and the broader narrative of Black America—are not forgotten.