Celebrating the Life of Rep. John Lewis

On Friday, July 17th, Rep. John Lewis died of pancreatic cancer at 80 years old. While a congressman for over 30 years representing Georgia’s 5th congressional district, Lewis was best known for his powerful way with words, inspiring speeches, and his advocacy as one of the leaders of the civil rights movement.

Despite learning of his cancer diagnosis last December, Lewis continued his work in Congress and speaking out in favor of the Black Live Matter movement and protests that began this past Spring after the death of George Floyd.

Throughout his life, Lewis was arrested 45 times. He was a veteran of peaceful sit-ins and nonviolent protests. He was beaten by police to the point where he believed he would die, had cigarettes burned on his skin, and endured tear gas. His legacy is great and one we shall not soon forget.

John Lewis was born on February 21, 1940, outside of Troy, Alabama.
The son of sharecroppers, Lewis attended segregated public schools and was inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks to dedicate his life to civic duty.
“In 1956, when you were only 16 years old, you and some of your brothers and sisters and first cousins went down to the public library, trying to get library cards, trying to check out some books. And you were told by the librarian that the library was for Whites only, not for Coloreds," he says in a 2017 video with CBS This Morning. He continues, “when you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to continue to speak up, to speak out."
After graduating from high school, with the dream of attending Troy State College, Lewis wrote to King. King then sent him a roundtrip bus ticket where Lewis met with King and formed a friendship with him.
While attending college in Nashville, Tennessee, Lewis and a group of students entered a restaurant and after being informed that they would not be served due to the color of their skin, staged a peaceful protest. During which they were spat on, had condiments poured on them, and beaten.

“One method of practicing this approach, when faced with a hateful, angry, aggressive, even despicable person, is to imagine that person — actually visualize him or her — as an infant, as a baby. If you can see this full-grown attacker who faces you as a pure, innocent child that he or she once was, it is not hard to find compassion in your heart.”

In 1961, Lewis became one of the original Freedom Riders who challenged segregation at bus terminals across the south.

“And if you look at some of the pictures of the mugshots when he’s arrested, you can see him smiling because he’s basically saying, you think you’re afflicting me, but you’re playing into what I want to do. But he’s still 23 years old. That’s all he is.” - Brent Staples, New York Times editorial board member on The Daily podcast on July 20, 2020.

A proponent of nonviolence, at age 23, Lewis was one of the youngest speakers during the 1963 march on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. famously gave his “I Have a Dream” speech.

“I felt that we had to be tough. I had to deliver a speech that reflected the feeling, the views of the young people, and also the views and feelings of the people that were struggling in the Black belt of Alabama, in southwest Georgia, in the Delta of Mississippi.” - John Lewis during an interview with NewsHour’s Gwen Ifill in 2013.

In March of 1965, Lewis and Hosea Williams led 3 protest marches along 54-miles of the highway from Selma, Alabama to state’s capital on Montgomery to demand the right to vote for Black people.
March 7, 1965, known as Bloody Sunday, approximately 600 individuals were stopped by police on Edmund Pettus Bridge. State and local law enforcement then attacked the peaceful protestors resulting in 17 people being hospitalized and dozens more injured, including Lewis who suffered a fractured skull.
On August 6, 1965, President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In 1986, Lewis was elected to the House of Representatives becoming the second African-American to represent Georgia in Congress.
In 1998, Lewis published his memoir, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement.

"And the same library invited you to come back for a book signing where Blacks and White citizens showed up. And after the book signing, they gave you a library card."

In 2011, Lewis was awarded the Presentential Medal of Freedom by President Barrack Obama, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Along with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell, in 2013 Lewis helped create the graphic novel series March, depicting Lewis's lifelong struggle for civil rights.
In 2016, after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, Lewis led a sit-in in Congress demanding gun control legislation.