John Lewis

John Lewis was an active member of the civil rights movement and was one of the youngest leaders at the time. Lewis heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak about the Montgomery Bus Boycotts and was inspired to join the movement. His first actions came in the lunch counter sit-ins in Nashville, Tennessee, and the freedom rides in Montgomery in 1960. in 1963 he was a keynote speaker at the March on Washington and became a chairman of the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee. In 1964 he organized voter registration efforts and in 1965 was one of the leaders of the Selma to Montgomery march. He was also one of the leaders who led the march on Bloody Sunday and was caught in the violence. In 1966 he left SNCC and served as the associate director of the Field Foundation and participated in voter registration programs with the Souther Regional Council. Lewis's activism continued though his work in the United States Congress. He was elected serve as a representative of Georgia's 5th Congressional District in November of 1986 and maintained that position until his passing in 2020. He served in many committees and in 2015 was granted the highest civilian honor in the U.S. which is the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.