CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST AND POLITICIAN
Explore, learn, and celebrate African American heritage.
JOHN R. LEWIS
Introduction
John Robert Lewis was born February 21,1940 in Montgomery Alabama. He was an American politician and a well-known civil rights leader. He became active in the cilvil rights movement while attending a historically black college in Nashville, Tennessee. John Lewis also led the first of the three Selma to Montgomery marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where the incident Bloody Sunday occurred, where state troopers attacked Lewis and the other marchers. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives for over 20 years as the representative of Georgia.
About John Robert Lewis
Mission
After first meeting Martin Luther King in 1958, John Lewis was recognized as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. By 1963, he was known as one of the “Big Six” leaders of the Movement along with Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, A. Pilip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney Young. organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville and took part in many other civil rights activities as part of the Nashville student Movement.
The Nashville sit-in movement was responsible for the desegregation of lunch counters in the city's downtown.
Medal of Freedom
Former President Barack Obama awards John Lewis the Presidential Medal of Freedom on February 15, 2011.
John Lewis and Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
John Robert Lewis Legacy
Philosophy
John Lewis expressed the importance to engage in "good trouble, necessary trouble" in order to achieve change.
The John and Lillian Miles foundation was created by the Congressman to carry on the Lewises's passion for purposeful living, civic engagement, building their beloved community, and to support GoodTroublemakers everywhere.
John Robert Lewis passed away on July 17, 2020 at the age of 80 years old from pancreatic cancer. He was transported by horse and carriage across the Edmund Pettus Bridge for a final time. He was the last remaining member of the "Big Six".
John Robert Lewis Family
Family History
My Great-Grandad
My Great-Grandad
John Robert Lewis was born to sharecroppers Willie Mae Carter and Eddie Lewis in Montgomery, Alabama. He was the third of ten children.
My Great-Grandad
My Great-Grandad
My Great-Grandad
My great-grandfather, Willie D Carter and John Lewis are first cousins. My great-great grandfather, J.D Carter, and John Lewis' mother Willie Mae Carter, were siblings, brother and sister.
My Grandad
My Great-Grandad
My Grandad
My grandfather Ronald Carter is the son of Willie D Carter, and father to my mother.
Decatur, Georgia
Statue of Honor
Dekalb County Georgia honors John Robert Lewis with a bronze statue in front of the courthouse in downtown Decatur Square in August, 2024. The statue replaces a more than 100 year old confederate monument.