The ObserverCivil rights movement This article is more than 3 years oldJohn Lewis timeline: from poverty to civil rights leader
This article is more than 3 years oldHow Congressman John Lewis rose from a rural Alabama upbringing to the corridors of power
John Lewis, civil rights hero, dies aged 80
Born in rural Alabama during the dark days of Jim Crow segregation, representative John Lewis rose from poverty to become a leader of the civil rights movement and later was elected to congress. Here is a timeline of some major events in Lewis life.
21 February, 1940
Born the son of black sharecroppers near Troy, Alabama.
1959
Long interested in civil rights and inspired by the work of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, Lewis participates in a series of workshops on nonviolent confrontation while attending college in Nashville, Tennessee. He goes on to participate in sit-ins, mass meetings and the landmark Freedom Rides of 1961 that tested racial segregation in the South.
January 1963
Serving as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Lewis arrives in Selma, Alabama, to help register black people to vote. Eight months later and just days after helping Martin Luther King Jr. organize the March on Washington, Lewis is arrested for the first of more than 40 times, for civil rights activities in Selma.
7 March, 1965
Lewis is beaten by an Alabama state trooper while attempting to lead an estimated 600 voting rights marchers out of Selma on the way to Montgomery in an violent confrontation now known as Bloody Sunday. He spends two days in a hospital.
This video has been removed. This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason.
John Lewis remembers 'Bloody Sunday' in Selma – video report21-25 March, 1965
Lewis joins thousands of others during the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march.
1971
Lewis takes over as executive director of the Voter Education Project, a program of the Southern Regional Council.
5 April, 1977
Lewis, making his first bid for Congress in metro Atlanta, loses to a popular white politician in a runoff. Later that year he is appointed by president Jimmy Carter to direct Action, a federal volunteer agency.
6 October, 1981
Lewis wins his first political office with his election as a member of the Atlanta City Council, where he serves until 1986.
4 November, 1986
Lewis is elected to Congress representing Georgias 5th district, which includes much of Atlanta. He was re-elected 16 times, most recently without opposition in 2018. Only once did he receive less than 70% of the vote.
2001
Lewis receives the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for Lifetime Achievement, one of a multitude of honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor, presented by President Barack Obama in 2011.
27 April, 2009
Lewis and four others are arrested in Washington during a demonstration at the embassy of Sudan, where they were protesting the expulsion of aid workers amid a humanitarian crisis.
8 March, 2015
Lewis joins Obama, former President George W. Bush and thousands of others in Selma at the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
22 June, 2016
Lewis leads a Democratic sit-in on the House floor to protest inaction on gun control measures.
29 December, 2019
Lewis announces he has been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer.
17 July, 2020
Lewis dies at the age of 80.
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