While still his 20s, John Lewis had already become one of the most
effective leaders ofin the civil rights movement. The son of
sharecropper, Lewis was born in Alabama, where he attended segregated
public schools. After organizing sit-in demonstration in Nashville,
Lewis volunteered for the 1961 Freedom Rides, which sought to challenge
segregation at interstate bus terminals across the South. As a result
of participating in these rides, Lewis was severely beaten by angry
mobs. From 1963-66, Lewis was the Chairman of the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and became a recognized as one of the
"Big Six" leaders in the civil rights movement. In 1963, he was a
keynote speaker at the historic "March on Washington." In what would
become a turning point for the civil rights movement, Lewis
then only 25 years old and fellow activist Hosea Williams
began a 54-mile march from Selma, Ala., to the capitol of Montgomery
leading more than 500 demonstrators seeking the right to vote. At the
Edmund Pettus Bridge, Lewis and the others faced Alabama State Troopers
who tried to disperse the marchers with clubs, tear gas and horses. The
day March 7, 1965 became known as "Bloody
Sunday" and the press coverage of the violence so shocked the nation
that Congress responded with the 1965 Voting Rights Act guaranteeing
the right to vote to every American at the age of 21. The photos of
Lewis, confronting the State Troopers and falling under their clubs,
became one of the civil rights movement's most powerful, symbolic
images. In 1982, Lewis, a Democrat, began his political career on the
Atlanta City Council He was elected to the U.S. House of
Representatives in 1986. His congressional district encompasses the
city of Atlanta, and parts of Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton and Cobb
counties. On many anniversaries of "Bloody Sunday," Lewis and other
civil rights supporters including then-President Bill
Clinton on one occasion repeat the historic walk across the
Edmund Pettus Bridge in commemoration of the Selma voting rights
marches.
