- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJohn Robert Lewis
- Height5′ 6″ (1.68 m)
- John Lewis was born on February 21, 1940 in Troy, Alabama, USA. He was married to Lillian Miles. He died on July 17, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
- SpouseLillian Miles(December 21, 1968 - December 31, 2012) (her death, 1 child)
- One of the thirteen original freedom riders, and was on board the bus the night the bus was firebombed on May 14, 1961 in Anniston, Alabama, USA. Lewis and the other Freedom Riders were able to get off the bus before the fire consumed the bus interior, only to be beaten and clubbed by the waiting white mob.
- Had his skull fractured by a state trooper, thereby shedding blood left behind on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on what was known as Bloody Sunday during the 1965 voting rights protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
- Marched with Martin Luther King Jr. during the intended peaceful 1965 voting rights protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, which ended violently on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. While Lewis and the other marchers upheld their pledge of non-violence, the Alabama State Police responded to their "threat" of non-violence with vicious, state condoned violence, including fracturing John Lewis' skull, almost causing his death. Lewis thought he was going to die. He said "I gave a little blood on that bridge," he said years later. "I thought I was going to die. I thought I saw death".
- Graduated from the American Baptist Theological Seminary, in Nashville, Tennessee in 1961 with a bachelor's degree in theology. And, graduated from Fisk University (one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, often referred to as HBCUs), in Nashville, Tennessee in 1963 with a bachelor's degree in religion and philosophy.
- Was a member of the Atlanta City Council from 1981 to 1986.
- [after 'The March on Washington', August 28, 1963] After Dr. King had spoken, we went back down to the White House. President Kennedy invited us back down, and he stood in the door of the Oval Office and greeted each one of us. He was like a proud beaming father that everything had gone so well. He said to each one of us as he shook our hand, You did a good job, you did a good job. And when he got to Dr. King, he said, 'And you had a dream'.
- I don't see this President-elect as a legitimate president. I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected. And they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.
- I'm troubled by President Trump. As Dr. King and others would say, you have to be a headlight for what is right, for what is fair, for what is just. I'm troubled that he is not leading the way.
- I've said to students, 'When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something, to say something,'" Lewis said in spring 2018. "And Dr. King inspired us to do just that.
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