John Lewis Biography Quotes 1 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
John Robert Lewis was born on February 21, 1940, outside Troy, Alabama, into a family that farmed the red clay of Pike County. He grew up amid the strictures of Jim Crow, learning early the discipline of faith and the sting of segregation. He often recalled preaching as a child to the family's chickens, a practice that honed his voice and moral clarity. Determined to study for the ministry and to challenge injustice, he moved to Nashville to attend American Baptist Theological Seminary (now American Baptist College) and later Fisk University. In Nashville he encountered the teachings of the Reverend James Lawson, whose workshops on nonviolence blended theology and strategy. Under the influence of Lawson and veteran organizers like Ella Baker, Lewis joined peers including Diane Nash and Bernard Lafayette in the sit-in movement that desegregated lunch counters and trained a generation in disciplined nonviolent direct action.

Civil Rights Activism
From Nashville, Lewis became a Freedom Rider in 1961, testing segregated bus terminals across the South. He endured beatings and arrests, yet returned to the road with a stubborn hope that public witness could change the nation. He helped found and then led the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), serving as its chair during pivotal years. In 1963 he was the youngest speaker at the March on Washington, appearing alongside Martin Luther King Jr., A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Ralph Abernathy, and Andrew Young. His prepared remarks, sharpened by SNCC's impatience with delay, were edited after intense back-and-forth with movement elders; Lewis accepted the changes, balancing urgency with unity. Through it all he grounded action in moral suasion, insisting that nonviolence was both a tactic and a way of life.

Selma and Voting Rights
On March 7, 1965, Lewis and Hosea Williams led a voting-rights march from Selma to Montgomery. At the crest of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, state troopers attacked. The day became known as Bloody Sunday; Lewis suffered a fractured skull, and Amelia Boynton Robinson was beaten unconscious. Televised images shocked the conscience of the country. Within months, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a law for which Lewis and colleagues, including Fannie Lou Hamer and James Farmer, had pressed for years. After leaving SNCC as the organization turned toward a different rhetoric under Stokely Carmichael, Lewis continued the work through the Voter Education Project, helping expand registration drives across the South.

From Movement to Public Office
Lewis brought movement values into formal politics. He served on the Atlanta City Council, where he emphasized ethics and neighborhood accountability, and in 1986 won election to the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's Fifth District, prevailing in a hard-fought race that included his SNCC compatriot Julian Bond. Taking office in 1987, he built a reputation as the conscience of Congress, working on the Ways and Means Committee, cultivating alliances with leaders such as Nancy Pelosi and Jim Clyburn, and maintaining respectful friendships across the aisle, notably with John McCain. He anchored his legislative approach in the same patience and persistence he had learned in Nashville and Selma.

Principles and Legislative Work
Lewis championed voting rights, campaign ethics, health care, immigration reform, and LGBTQ equality, and he strongly opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He pushed to renew and defend the Voting Rights Act and called on colleagues to treat the franchise as a moral trust. He helped lead a rare sit-in on the House floor to demand action on gun violence, echoing tactics he had employed as a young activist. Believing history could be a bridge to justice, he worked with bipartisan allies to establish the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall.

Authorship, Mentorship, and Culture
Lewis told his story to equip new generations. His memoir, Walking with the Wind, provided a detailed chronicle of the movement. Across That Bridge reflected on the spiritual philosophy that sustained him. With aide Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell, he co-created the March graphic novel trilogy, which became a touchstone for students and organizers. In Selma on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, he crossed the bridge hand in hand with President Barack Obama and other civil rights veterans, a moment that linked past to present. Obama had earlier awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a recognition that celebrated both a singular life and the networks that shaped it.

Personal Life
In 1968 he married Lillian Miles, a steadfast partner in public service until her death decades later. They raised a son, John-Miles Lewis. Though public life consumed long hours, he remained rooted in faith communities and in Atlanta's neighborhoods, offering time and counsel to young activists as movements for immigrant rights, marriage equality, and Black Lives Matter gathered force.

Final Years and Legacy
Lewis announced a diagnosis of advanced pancreatic cancer in late 2019 and died on July 17, 2020, in Atlanta. Tributes flowed from presidents, including Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, and from congressional colleagues such as Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, as well as from civil rights veterans like Andrew Young and Diane Nash. He lay in honor at the U.S. Capitol, and his final procession crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge one last time. Throughout the mourning, his words echoed: make good trouble, necessary trouble. John Robert Lewis left a record of courage joined to humility, and a template for public life rooted in nonviolence, discipline, and love. His example remains a summons to protect the vote, to welcome the outsider, and to hold fast to the possibility that steadfast people, working together, can bend history toward justice.

Our collection contains 1 quotes who is written by John, under the main topics: Justice.

Other people realated to John: John F. Kennedy (President), Lyndon B. Johnson (President), Miles Davis (Musician), Abraham Joshua Heschel (Educator), Robert F. Kennedy (Politician), Whitney M. Young (Activist), Dick Gregory (Comedian), Dorothy Height (Activist), Fannie Lou Hamer (Activist), Howard Zinn (Historian)