Congressman John Lewis is well known as one of the prominent six leaders of the Civil Rights Movement that took place in the 1960s. He is considered one of the most courageous people in the era of segregation. John Lewis first gained fame at 16 when he preached at his family’s church (Hollars, 2018). By 25, the man had accomplished a lot by using his speech and assembly as tools for change. Before making it to congress, John Lewis dedicated his life to fighting for human rights and securing personal dignity (Emmons, 2018). However, this was only the start as he continued to use his powerful voice to fight for racial justice and first amendment freedoms as a congressman. Throughout his lifetime, he exhibited a sense of morality and ethics, and several of his colleagues in the U.S. congress admired him for this. This essay aims to profile congressman John Lewis and shed light on the type of activism he was involved in and his significant achievements.
Background and His Involvement in Activism
Congressman John Lewis was born on February 21, 1940, near Troy, Alabama, U.S. As a son of sharecroppers, he needed to work hard so as to assist his parents. However, he often ran away from his family’s farm to avoid chores and instead attend class (Pratt, 2017). Born in an era of segregation, John Lewis had to attend segregated public schools in rural Alabama. In school, Lewis was able to access the outside world through magazines, books, and newspapers, as this became the central focus of the young man’s life. At 15, Lewis heard Martin Luther King Jr. preaching in a sermon on the radio and immediately felt inspired (Hollars, 2018). He would then begin to closely follow the civil rights movement (including Rosa Parks’ bus boycott in Montgomery) and preach in his family’s church.
Lewis was inspired to become involved in activism due to the injustices and segregation that favored whites at the expense of Black Americans. He attended the American Baptist Theological Institute and Fisk University in Nashville, where he embraced nonviolent protests for change. He was first arrested in 1961 when he fought the segregation of the southern interstate bus terminals by organizing a series of sit-ins at lunch counters meant to be for whites only (Emmons, 2018). This was just the first of many times to come that Lewis would be arrested for his activism. When given a fine for his actions, Lewis refused to pay and instead chose to serve his sentence. As a result, the national media’s attention was drawn to the sit-ins, and public pressure led Nashville to desegregate public facilities (Hollars, 2018). Since then, Lewis became actively involved in civil rights demonstrations and even became one of the advocates involved in the infamous 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery to fight for equal voting rights.
Lewis’ Causes and Movements
For John Lewis, his cause began as a boy experiencing the injustices of segregation and the inspiration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words. His primary focus was to change the world by fighting the racial injustices that African Americans were facing at the time (Emmons, 2018). He believed and invested his life in peaceful protests to change the world. Lewis became engrossed in the civil rights movement and participated in protests that left him bruised but undeterred (Pratt, 2017; Hollars, 2018). Although the segregation of interstate bus facilities was struck down by the supreme court, segregation remained a deeply rooted reality in several areas of the rural South. Therefore, Lewis, together with other members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), commenced a sequence of “Freedom Rides” (from New Orleans, Louisiana to South Carolina and Alabama) to fight the segregation and racist practices that were taking place (Hollars, 2018). Throughout these rides, they were met with beatings and harassment. In the long run, Lewis, among other freedom riders were imprisoned for almost a month in the Mississippi state prison for participating in the Freedom Rides.
However, John Lewis would not give up; he kept on getting involved in demonstrations against racially segregated facilities. In 1963, he was appointed the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) (Hollars, 2018). He focused on utilizing the press to push the public into confronting the suffering of nonviolent protesters in the hands of law enforcement (Emmons, 2018). Lewis gained a high profile in the civil rights movement by 1963 and became one of the main initiators of the Washington March that year. Suffice to say that his leading cause and focus was the fight for civil rights legislation, voting rights, freedom, and to end racial inequality.
The type of activism that John Lewis was involved in is peaceful protests and nonviolent resistance. This involved peaceful public marches and demonstrations, sit-ins, and freedom rides from state to state in his fight for equal rights. Although Lewis was often the subject of physical attacks, he did not give in nor use force in his fight (Emmons, 2018). Instead, he persevered with dignity and a devotion to not using violence to change the world. He used the media to document the violence they faced as protestors and pushed for change through public outrage. Through his voice and actions, Lewis was committed to human rights from his rural home all the way to Washington DC.
Major Successes as an Activist
Among his major successes as an activist and the movements he was involved in there was the passage of the voting rights act. The legislation was passed in 1965, and through it, legal barriers that prevented Black Americans from voting were overcome (Pratt, 2017). It was through the civil rights movement that Lewis and his fellow activists led more than 600 marchers in Selma, Alabama, to peacefully protesting for voting rights for African Americans (Pratt, 2017). When they stopped to pray, the police attacked and beat them up, leaving several hospitalized participants, including Lewis, who sustained a fractured skull. As scenes of the injustice were streamed worldwide, the public became outraged and demanded that President Johnson act. This led to the passing of the voting rights act and the freedom to vote for all disenfranchised voters of the South (Emmons, 2018). Aside from this, John Lewis was able to stop racial segregation in many parts of the country through his activism.
Even as a congressman, John Lewis advocated for what he believed was right even though this would place him on the losing end of significant proposals. Lewis also faced opposition when he voted alongside the majority. An example of this is when Lewis faced racial slurs for supporting the affordable care act in the Obama administration (Emmons, 2018). What inspired many about this leader was the unwavering stand of his fight for what he believed was right. To date, John Lewis remains to be a figure of inspiration not only to African Americans but the entire world as well since he showed that one person could inspire and achieve change.
References
Emmons, C. S. (2018). Selma’s Bloody Sunday: Protest, Voting Rights, and the Struggle for Racial Equality by Robert A. Pratt. Journal of Southern History, 84(2), 517-518. Web.
Hollars, B. J. (2018). The Road South: Personal Stories of the Freedom Riders. University of Alabama Press.
Pratt, R. A. (2017). Selma’s Bloody Sunday: Protest, Voting Rights, and the Struggle for Racial Equality. JHU Press.