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Birth
Born near Troy, Alabama on February 21, 1940. The third child of ten. His parents were sharecroppers -
Lewis Meets King
Lewis wrote to King about being denied an admission to Troy University in alabama. Then Lewis was invited to meet Dr. King. King suggested that he sue the school for segregation but by doing so he would risk his family's safety. -
Freedom Riders
Lewis became an activist in the civil rights movement and joined the Freedom Riders. The Freedom Riders went to southern states and broke racist laws. -
Early Education
Lewis and his parents had decided that Lewis would go to a small and historically african american college. He graduated from the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee. -
SNCC
Charles McDew stepped down as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1963. At the time, Lewis was widely respected for his experience and was a founding member of the SNCC and was elected to succeed McDew. However, he was replaced by Stokely Carmichael in 1666 -
Fisk University
After he was given the title of a Baptist minister, he earned a bachelor's degree in religion and philosophy from Fisk University. -
Marriage
John Lewis married lilian miles on December 21, 1968. -
VEP
Lewis was the director of the Voter Education project for seven years. The VEP raised and distributed funds to civil rights organizations for voter education. -
Early Government work
In the March 1977 open primary, Wyche Fowler was rank 1 with Lewis in rank 2. In april, Lewis lost to Fowler with the percentage score being 62%-38%. After his defeat, Lewis accepted a position with the Carter administration as associate director of ACTION. Then, in 1981, Lewis ran for a seat on the Atlanta City Council and won 69% of the vote. He served until 1986. -
House of Rep.
In 1986, Fowler made a successful run for the U.S. Senate, and Lewis ran for the 5th district again. In the August primary, Julian Bond was in first with 47% of the votes, and Lewis in second with 35%. In the run-off however, Lewis made a comeback against Bond and defeated him 52% to 48%. -
Domination in the Fifth District
In the 16 times he was reelected, Lewis only dropped below 70% one time in 1994. He defeated Mable Thomas twice, in 1992 and 2008. He also ran unopposed in 1996, 2004, 2006, 2014, and 2018. -
2020 presidential election
Lewis supported Joe Biden for president on April 7, 2020 -
Death
John Lewis died in Atlanta, Georgia
