INFORMATION ABOUT JOHN LEWIS

· John Lewis was born on February 21, l940 in Alabama

· He was the son of sharecroppers and grew up in a life of extreme poverty

· He had speech problems and some people said he was a child who was not supposed to succeed at anything

· In 1954 in the case Brown v. The Board of Education it was ruled that schools had to be integrated, he was still forced to attend segregated schools

· He went to the seminary and then to Fisk University and got a B.A. degree

· He studied the philosophy of non-violence of Gandhi and believed in social action

· He believed in the Civil Rights Movement and became a leader in this Movement

· As a student he organized sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee

· In 1961, he volunteered to participate in Freedom riders across the South

· Lewis risked his life and was severely beaten for participating in the Rides

· From 1963 to 1966, Lewis was Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a group a students who led activities in the struggle for civil rights

· He became recognized as a civil rights leader and in 1963 he helped plan the historic “March on Washington”

· In 1965, Lewis was one of the leaders of one of the most dramatic nonviolent protests, leading over 600 marchers across the Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama

· The marchers were attacked by Alabama State troopers and March 7, 1965 became known as “Bloody Sunday”

· In 1965 the Voting Rights Act was passed

· Lewis was attacked and arrested many times but remained an advocate of the philosophy of nonviolence

· In 1977 he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to direct a volunteer organization

· In 1981 he was elected to the city council in Atlanta, Georgia

· In 1986 he was elected to Congress from Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District , is currently serving his eighth term in Congress and serves on many committees

· He has won many awards including the Martin Luther King, Jr Non-violent Peace Prize, the John F. Kennedy “Profile in Courage Award” for lifetime achievement and the National education Association Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Award