97 Facts About John Lewis

1.

John Robert Lewis was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020.

2.

John Lewis participated in the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, was the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1963 to 1966, and was one of the "Big Six" leaders of groups who organized the 1963 March on Washington.

3.

John Lewis was one of the leaders of the Democratic Party in the House, serving from 1991 as a chief deputy whip and from 2003 as a senior chief deputy whip.

4.

John Lewis received many honorary degrees and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.

5.

John Robert Lewis was born near Troy, Alabama, on February 21,1940, the third of ten children of Willie Mae and Eddie Lewis.

6.

John Lewis's parents were sharecroppers in rural Pike County, Alabama, of which Troy was the county seat.

7.

John Lewis had relatives who lived in northern cities, and he learned from them that in the North schools, buses, and businesses were integrated.

8.

When John Lewis was 11, an uncle took him to Buffalo, New York, where he became acutely aware of the contrast with Troy's segregation.

9.

At 17, John Lewis met Rosa Parks, notable for her role in the bus boycott, and met King for the first time at the age of 18.

10.

In later years, John Lewis credited evangelist Billy Graham, a friend of King's, as someone who "helped change me".

11.

John Lewis stated that Graham inspired him "to a significant degree" to fulfill his aspirations of becoming a minister.

12.

John Lewis graduated from the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee, and was ordained as a Baptist minister.

13.

John Lewis then earned a bachelor's degree in religion and philosophy from Fisk University, a historically black college.

14.

John Lewis was a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

15.

John Lewis organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville and took part in many other civil rights activities as part of the Nashville Student Movement.

16.

John Lewis was arrested and jailed many times during the nonviolent activities to desegregate the city's downtown businesses.

17.

John Lewis was instrumental in organizing bus boycotts and other nonviolent protests to support voting rights and racial equality.

18.

In 1961, John Lewis became one of the 13 original Freedom Riders.

19.

At age 21, John Lewis was the first of the Freedom Riders to be assaulted while in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

20.

Two weeks later John Lewis joined a "Freedom Ride" bound for Jackson, Mississippi.

21.

In February 2009,48 years after the Montgomery attack, John Lewis received a nationally televised apology from Elwin Wilson, a white southerner and former Klansman.

22.

John Lewis wrote in 2015 that he had known the young activists Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman from New York.

23.

In 1963, when Charles McDew stepped down as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, John Lewis, a founding member, was elected to take over.

24.

John Lewis had already been arrested 24 times in the nonviolent movement for equal justice.

25.

John Lewis had written a response to Kennedy's 1963 Civil Rights Bill.

26.

John Lewis planned to denounce Kennedy's bill for failing to provide protection for African Americans against police brutality, or to provide African Americans with the means to vote; he described the bill as "too little and too late".

27.

John Lewis coordinated SNCC's efforts for Freedom Summer, a campaign to register black voters in Mississippi and to engage college student activists in aiding the campaign.

28.

John Lewis traveled the country, encouraging students to spend their summer break trying to help people vote in Mississippi, which had the lowest number of black voters and strong resistance to the movement.

29.

In 1965 John Lewis organized some of the voter registration efforts during the 1965 Selma voting rights campaign, and became nationally known during his prominent role in the Selma to Montgomery marches.

30.

John Lewis's skull was fractured, but he was aided in escaping across the bridge to Brown Chapel, a church in Selma that served as the movement's headquarters.

31.

John Lewis bore scars on his head from this incident for the rest of his life.

32.

John Lewis served as SNCC chairman until 1966, when he was replaced by Stokely Carmichael.

33.

In 1966, John Lewis moved to New York City to take a job as the associate director of the Field Foundation.

34.

John Lewis was there a little over a year before moving back to Atlanta to direct the Southern Regional Council's Community Organization Project.

35.

In 1970, John Lewis became the director of the Voter Education Project, a position he held until 1977.

36.

John Lewis held that job for two and a half years, resigning as the 1980 election approached.

37.

In 1981, John Lewis ran for an at-large seat on the Atlanta City Council.

38.

John Lewis was "endorsed by the Atlanta newspapers and a favorite of the white liberal establishment".

39.

John Lewis's victory was due to strong results among white voters.

40.

John Lewis ran unopposed in 1996,2004,2006, and 2008, and again in 2014 and 2018.

41.

John Lewis was challenged in the Democratic primary just twice: in 1992 and 2008.

42.

John Lewis represented Georgia's 5th congressional district, one of the most consistently Democratic districts in the nation.

43.

John Lewis was one of the most liberal congressmen to have represented a district in the Deep South.

44.

John Lewis was categorized as a "Hard-Core Liberal" by On the Issues.

45.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said John Lewis was the "only former major civil rights leader who extended his fight for human rights and racial reconciliation to the halls of Congress".

46.

John Lewis cited Florida Senator and later Representative Claude Pepper, a staunch liberal, as being the colleague whom he most admired.

47.

John Lewis spoke out in support of gay rights and national health insurance.

48.

John Lewis opposed the 1991 Gulf War, and the 2000 US trade agreement with China that passed the House.

49.

John Lewis opposed the Clinton administration on NAFTA and welfare reform.

50.

In 1998, when Clinton was considering a military strike against Iraq, John Lewis said he would back the president if American forces were ordered into action.

51.

John Lewis was a "fierce partisan critic of President Bush", and an early opponent of the Iraq War.

52.

John Lewis drew on his historical involvement in the Civil Rights Movement as part of his politics.

53.

John Lewis explained his support as "a simple demonstration of my ongoing commitment to the ability of every American to exercise the fundamental First Amendment right to protest through nonviolent actions".

54.

In January 2001, Lewis boycotted the inauguration of George W Bush by staying in his Atlanta district.

55.

John Lewis did not attend the swearing-in because he did not believe Bush was the true elected president.

56.

Later, John Lewis joined 30 other House Democrats who voted to not count the 20 electoral votes from Ohio in the 2004 presidential election.

57.

In March 2003, John Lewis spoke to a crowd of 30,000 in Oregon during an anti-war protest before the start of the Iraq War.

58.

John Lewis was one of eight US Representatives, from six states, arrested while holding a sit-in near the west side of the US Capitol building, to advocate for immigration reform.

59.

At first, John Lewis supported Hillary Clinton, endorsing her presidential campaign on October 12,2007.

60.

On February 27,2008, John Lewis formally changed his support and endorsed Obama.

61.

John Lewis later issued a follow-up statement clarifying that he had not compared McCain and Palin to Wallace himself, but rather that his earlier statement was a "reminder to all Americans that toxic language can lead to destructive behavior".

62.

In 1988, the year after he was sworn into Congress, John Lewis introduced a bill to create a national African American museum in Washington.

63.

John Lewis supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries against Bernie Sanders.

64.

Former Congressman and Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie wrote a letter to John Lewis expressing his disappointment with John Lewis's comments about Sanders.

65.

John Lewis's statement was rated as "Pants on Fire" by PolitiFact.

66.

John Lewis endorsed Joe Biden for president on April 7,2020, a day before Biden effectively secured the Democratic nomination.

67.

John Lewis recommended Biden pick a woman of color as his running mate.

68.

John Lewis served on the following Congressional committees at the time of his death:.

69.

In 1991, John Lewis became the senior chief deputy whip in the Democratic caucus.

70.

John Lewis's life is the subject of a 2002 book for young people, John Lewis: From Freedom Rider to Congressman.

71.

In 2012, John Lewis released Across That Bridge, written with Brenda Jones, to mixed reviews.

72.

In 2013, John Lewis became the first member of Congress to write a graphic novel, with the launch of a trilogy titled March.

73.

John Lewis met his future wife Lillian Miles at a New Year's Eve party hosted by Xernona Clayton.

74.

On December 29,2019, John Lewis announced that he had been diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer.

75.

John Lewis remained in the Washington DC area for his treatment.

76.

John Lewis had been the final surviving "Big Six" civil rights icon.

77.

Public ceremonies honoring John Lewis began in his hometown of Troy, Alabama at Troy University, which had denied him admission in 1957 due to racial segregation.

78.

John Lewis's casket was then taken for a memorial held at the historic Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama.

79.

On July 29,2020, John Lewis's casket left the US Capitol and was transported back to Atlanta, Georgia, where he lay in state at the Georgia State Capitol.

80.

John Lewis penned an op-ed to the nation that was published in The New York Times on the day of his funeral.

81.

John Lewis was honored by having the 1997 sculpture by Thornton Dial, The Bridge, placed at Ponce de Leon Avenue and Freedom Park, Atlanta, dedicated to him by the artist.

82.

In 1999, John Lewis was awarded the Wallenberg Medal from the University of Michigan in recognition of his courageous lifelong commitment to the defense of civil and human rights.

83.

In 2004, John Lewis received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member James Earl Jones.

84.

In September 2007, Lewis was awarded the Dole Leadership Prize from the Robert J Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas.

85.

In 2010, Lewis was awarded the First LBJ Liberty and Justice for All Award, given to him by the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation, and the next year, Lewis was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

86.

The timing of John Lewis's award coincided with the 150th anniversary of the 14th amendment.

87.

In 2020, Lewis was awarded the Walter P Reuther Humanitarian Award by Wayne State University, the UAW, and the Reuther family.

88.

John Lewis gave numerous commencement addresses, including at the School of Visual Arts in 2014, Bates College and Washington University in St Louis in 2016, Bard College and Bank Street College of Education in 2017, and Harvard University in 2018.

89.

John Lewis was recognized for his involvement with comics with the 2017 Inkpot Award.

90.

John Lewis was portrayed by Stephan James in the 2014 film Selma.

91.

John Lewis made a cameo appearance in the music video for Young Jeezy's song "My President", which was released in the month of Obama's inauguration.

92.

In 2017, John Lewis voiced himself in the Arthur episode "Arthur Takes a Stand".

93.

Lewis's life was chronicled in the 2017 PBS documentary John Lewis: Get in the Way and the 2020 CNN Films documentary John Lewis: Good Trouble.

94.

Lewis appeared in the 2019 documentary Bobby Kennedy for President, in which Lewis commends Robert F Kennedy especially in regards to his support for civil rights throughout his time as a senator for New York and during Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign.

95.

John Lewis recounted his deep sorrow following the 1968 assassinations of Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

96.

John Lewis appeared alongside Amandla Stenberg to present Green Book as Best Picture at the 91st Academy Awards that took place on February 24,2019.

97.

John Lewis attended comics conventions to promote his graphic novel, most notably the San Diego Comic-Con, which he attended in 2013,2015,2016, and 2017.