John Lewis

Former United States Representative

February 21, 1940 Alabama, United States

July 17, 2020 Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Lillian Miles (m. 1968)

John Lewis was one of the most important and influential figures of the American Civil Rights movement as well as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020. Originally from segregated Alabama, Lewis grew up experiencing first-hand what that entailed. As a youth, he became one of the “big six” leaders of the coalition that assembled the historic 1963 March on Washington. He was the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) between1963 and 1966. John Lewis, as one of the leaders of three Selma to Montgomery marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, was brutally attacked by the authorities in an incident that gained infamy as Bloody Sunday. After entering politics, he joined the Democratic Party. During his tenure in the US Congress, he maintained an almost reverential adherence to his staunch liberal ideals and regularly opposed legislation that he felt were in violation of them, including even those proposed by his own party. He supported Barack Obama in the 2008 and 2012 US presidential elections and Hilary Clinton in 2016.