Lewis, the son of Alabama sharecroppers, became a leader in the Freedom Riders fight against segregation and later a 17-term congressman from Georgia.
The son of Alabama sharecroppers waged nonviolent battles against injustice at lunch counters, schools, bus stations and streets of the South.
Lewis moved his fight from the lunch counters, schools, bus stations and streets of the South to the halls of Congress, where he was the Democrats' senior chief deputy whip and member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. While battling cancer, he ran for reelection to an 18th term in Congress, and during the protests following the police killing of George Floyd, he visited a 2-block-long asphalt canvas on Washington's 16th Street that says "BLACK LIVES MATTER" in giant yellow letters.
He received a B.A. in religion and philosophy from Fisk University and was a graduate of the American Baptist Theological Seminary, both in Nashville, Tennessee.in Nashville, and in 1961 he joined the Freedom Rides against segregation at bus terminals across the South, according to his congressional website.
During the "Mississippi Burning" Freedom Summer the next year, he organized voter registration drives and community action programs.
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