American civil rights leader John R. Lewis
Credit: Office of John Robert Lewis

The world lost a major voice for the rights of African Americans on Friday, July 17, with the death of the American politician and civil rights leader John Lewis at the age of 80. A Democrat from Georgia, Lewis was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 until his death in 2020. He became nationally known in the early 1960’s for organizing student protests against segregation (the enforced separation of African Americans) and racial discrimination in the South. Throughout his life, Lewis worked to promote the rights and political involvement of African Americans.

John Robert Lewis was born near Troy, Alabama, on Feb. 21, 1940. Lewis attended segregated schools, and later graduated from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. As a university student in 1961, Lewis volunteered as a “Freedom Rider,” challenging segregation at bus terminals throughout the South.

In 1960, Lewis became a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which organized student protests, such as sit-ins at lunch counters. In 1963, Lewis was a keynote speaker at the March on Washington, where Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. In 1965, Lewis was a leader in the voting rights protest march from Selma, Alabama. He and other marchers were attacked by state troopers in an event that became known as “Bloody Sunday.” Lewis also suffered beatings by angry mobs and was arrested by police dozens of times.

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Lewis to help lead ACTION, a federal agency that directed volunteer programs. In 1981, Lewis was elected to the City Council of Atlanta, Georgia. He served from 1982 to 1986, when he was elected to his first term in Congress.

Lewis was also the author of several books centered on his involvement in the civil rights movement. In 2011, Lewis received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor awarded by a U.S. president.

Lewis died on the same day as C. T. Vivian, a civil rights organizer and leader under King. Lewis’s death took on added significance in the wake of protests against police use of force against African Americans sparked by the killing of George Floyd and others.