About John Lewis
John Robert Lewis was born on February 21, 1940, near Troy, in Pike County, Alabama, the son of sharecroppers. As a boy he wanted to be a preacher, and he practiced his sermons on the family's chickens. In 1958, at 18, he met Martin Luther King Jr. in Montgomery. He studied at American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, where in 1960 he helped lead the city's lunch-counter sit-ins.
In 1961 he was a Freedom Rider, and he was beaten in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and again in Montgomery. He chaired the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1963 to 1966, and on August 28, 1963, he was the youngest speaker at the March on Washington. On March 7, 1965, he and Hosea Williams led marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where Alabama state troopers beat them and fractured his skull. The day became known as Bloody Sunday. Over those years he was arrested more than 40 times.
He married Lillian Miles in 1968; their son is John-Miles Lewis. He ran the Voter Education Project in the 1970s, and in 1977 President Jimmy Carter named him an associate director of ACTION, the federal volunteer agency. He was elected to the Atlanta City Council in 1981, and in 1986 to the U.S. House from Georgia's 5th District, which he represented for 17 terms. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011, and with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell he wrote March, a graphic-novel memoir whose third book won the 2016 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. He urged people to get into what he called "good trouble, necessary trouble." He died in Atlanta on July 17, 2020, at 80. Days later, his casket was carried across the Edmund Pettus Bridge one last time, and he became the first Black lawmaker to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda.
A Life in Time
- 1940: Born February 21 near Troy, Pike County, Alabama
- 1958: Meets Martin Luther King Jr. in Montgomery, at 18
- 1960: Helps lead the Nashville lunch-counter sit-ins
- 1961: Rides with the Freedom Riders; beaten in Rock Hill and Montgomery
- 1963: Becomes chairman of SNCC; youngest speaker at the March on Washington, August 28
- 1965: Leads marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on Bloody Sunday, March 7
- 1968: Marries Lillian Miles
- 1977: Named an associate director of ACTION, the federal volunteer agency, by President Carter
- 1981: Elected to the Atlanta City Council
- 1986: Elected to the U.S. House from Georgia's 5th District, the first of 17 terms
- 2011: Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom
- 2016: March: Book Three wins the National Book Award for Young People's Literature
- Jul 17, 2020: Dies in Atlanta, at 80
- Jul 2020: Carried across the Edmund Pettus Bridge one last time; lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda
Connected lives
- SNCC · Chairman · 1963 – 1966
- Martin Luther King Jr. · Met in Montgomery · 1958
- Selma, Alabama · Bloody Sunday · Edmund Pettus Bridge
- Troy, Alabama · Birthplace
- Lillian Miles Lewis · Wife · 44 years
- Jimmy Carter · ACTION appointment · fellow Georgian
- Atlanta, GA · City Council · Georgia's 5th District
- Ben Jones · Georgia colleague in the U.S. House
- Jesse Jackson · Sit-in leaders, 1960