JOHN R. LEWIS
Name: John Robert Lewis
Born: 21 February 1940 Troy, Alabama
John Robert Lewis (born February 21, 1940) is an American politician and was a
leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. He was chairman of the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and played a key role in the struggle
to end segregation. Lewis, a member of the Democratic Party, has represented
Georgia's 5th Congressional District (map) in the United States House of
Representatives since 1987. The district encompasses almost all of Atlanta.
Born in Troy, Alabama, the son of sharecroppers, Lewis was educated at the
American Baptist Theological Seminary and at Fisk University, both in Nashville,
Tennessee, where he became active in the local sit-in movement. He participated
in the Freedom Rides to desegregate the South, and was a national leader in the
struggle for civil rights. Lewis became nationally known after his prominent
role on the Selma to Montgomery marches, when police beat the nonviolently
marching Lewis mercilessly in public, leaving head wounds that are still visible
today.
Of John Lewis, the historian Howard Zinn wrote: "At the great Washington March
of 1963, the chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC),
John Lewis, speaking to the same enormous crowd that heard Martin Luther King's
I Have a Dream, (speech) was prepared to ask the right question: 'Which side is
the federal government on?' That sentence was eliminated from his speech by
organizers of the March to avoid offending the Kennedy Administration. But Lewis
and his fellow SNCC workers had experienced, again and again, the strange
passivity of the national government in the face of Southern violence."
Lewis (far right) with Bayard Rustin, Andrew Young, William Fitts Ryan, and
James L. Farmer, Jr.
"John Lewis and SNCC had reason to be angry. John had been beaten bloody by a
white mob in Montgomery as a Freedom Rider in the spring of 1961. The federal
government had trusted the notoriously racist Alabama police to protect the
Riders, but done nothing itself except to have FBI agents take notes. Instead of
insisting that blacks and whites had a right to ride the buses together, the
Kennedy Administration called for a 'cooling-off period,' a moratorium on
Freedom Rides.
"The white population could not possibly be unaffected by those events—some
whites more stubborn in their defense of segregation, but others beginning to
think in different ways. And the black population was transformed, having risen
up in mass action for the first time, feeling its power, knowing now that if the
old order could be shaken it could be toppled."
Standing at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, John Lewis turned his wrath, not
at the easy target, the Dixiecrats, but against the Administration.... To many,
the March had been presented as a gigantic lobby for the Administration's Civil
Rights Bill, but Lewis pointed quickly, unerringly, to the weaknesses in the
bill. Furthermore, by sponsoring a new civil-rights bill, the Administration had
skillfully turned attention to Congress, and deflected the erratic spotlight of
the civil-rights movement from possibly focusing on inadequacies of the
Executive. The straight, crass fact at which John Lewis was aiming is this: the
national government, without any new legislation, has the power to protect Negro
voters and demonstrators from policemen's clubs, hoses and jails—and it has not
used that power.
After leaving SNCC in 1966, Lewis worked with community organizations and was
named community affairs director for the National Consumer Co-op Bank in Atlanta.
Lewis first ran for elective office in 1977, when a vacancy occurred in Georgia's
5th District. A special election was called after President Jimmy Carter
appointed incumbent Congressman Andrew Young to be U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations. Lewis lost the race to Atlanta City Councilman and future Senator Wyche
Fowler. In 1981, Lewis was himself elected to the Atlanta City Council.
In 1986, when Fowler ran for the United States Senate, Lewis defeated fellow
civil rights leader Julian Bond in the Democratic primary to succeed Fowler in
the 5th District. This win was tantamount to election in the heavily Democratic,
majority-black 5th District. Lewis was the second African-American to represent
Georgia in Congress since Reconstruction. Young was the first. Lewis has been re-elected
nine times without serious opposition, often with over 70 percent of the vote.
He has been unopposed for reelection since 2002.
Since 1991, Lewis has been senior chief deputy whip in the Democratic caucus. He
is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc..
Lewis is, according to the Associated Press, "the first major House figure to
suggest impeaching George W. Bush," arguing that the president "deliberately,
systematically violated the law" in authorizing the National Security Agency to
conduct wiretaps without a warrant. Lewis said, "He is not King, he is president."
For many years, he has served on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and
is the chairman of its Subcommittee on Oversight.
Lewis, an outspoken progressive and staunch opponent of the Iraq War, endorsed
Joe Lieberman for re-election to the Senate in 2006, despite Lieberman's loss to
Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary.
He was one of the 31 who voted in the House to not count the electoral votes
from Ohio in the 2004 presidential election.
Lewis delivered the Commencement Address at the University of Massachusetts
Lowell on Sunday June 3, 2007 at Edward A. LeLacheur Park.
In September 2007, Lewis was awarded the Dole Leadership Prize from the Robert J.
Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas.
On October 12, 2007, Lewis endorsed the presidential campaign of Senator Hillary
Clinton. On February 14, 2008, Lewis spoke with the Associated Press and
suggested he might reverse his endorsement in light of Senator Barack Obama's
increased momentum: "It could (happen). There's no question about it. It could
happen with a lot of people. ... We can count, and we see the clock." Later
that day, Lewis announced he was withdrawing his support from Senator Clinton
and would instead cast his superdelegate vote for Barack Obama: "Something is
happening in America and people are prepared and ready to make that great leap."
However, a spokesperson for Lewis' office stated that the report in the New York
Times was "inaccurate". On February 27, 2008, Lewis formally changed his
support and endorsed Barack Obama.
Name: John Robert Lewis
Born: 21 February 1940 Troy, Alabama
John Robert Lewis (born February 21, 1940) is an American politician and was a
leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. He was chairman of the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and played a key role in the struggle
to end segregation. Lewis, a member of the Democratic Party, has represented
Georgia's 5th Congressional District (map) in the United States House of
Representatives since 1987. The district encompasses almost all of Atlanta.
Born in Troy, Alabama, the son of sharecroppers, Lewis was educated at the
American Baptist Theological Seminary and at Fisk University, both in Nashville,
Tennessee, where he became active in the local sit-in movement. He participated
in the Freedom Rides to desegregate the South, and was a national leader in the
struggle for civil rights. Lewis became nationally known after his prominent
role on the Selma to Montgomery marches, when police beat the nonviolently
marching Lewis mercilessly in public, leaving head wounds that are still visible
today.
Of John Lewis, the historian Howard Zinn wrote: "At the great Washington March
of 1963, the chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC),
John Lewis, speaking to the same enormous crowd that heard Martin Luther King's
I Have a Dream, (speech) was prepared to ask the right question: 'Which side is
the federal government on?' That sentence was eliminated from his speech by
organizers of the March to avoid offending the Kennedy Administration. But Lewis
and his fellow SNCC workers had experienced, again and again, the strange
passivity of the national government in the face of Southern violence."
Lewis (far right) with Bayard Rustin, Andrew Young, William Fitts Ryan, and
James L. Farmer, Jr.
"John Lewis and SNCC had reason to be angry. John had been beaten bloody by a
white mob in Montgomery as a Freedom Rider in the spring of 1961. The federal
government had trusted the notoriously racist Alabama police to protect the
Riders, but done nothing itself except to have FBI agents take notes. Instead of
insisting that blacks and whites had a right to ride the buses together, the
Kennedy Administration called for a 'cooling-off period,' a moratorium on
Freedom Rides.
"The white population could not possibly be unaffected by those events—some
whites more stubborn in their defense of segregation, but others beginning to
think in different ways. And the black population was transformed, having risen
up in mass action for the first time, feeling its power, knowing now that if the
old order could be shaken it could be toppled."
Standing at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, John Lewis turned his wrath, not
at the easy target, the Dixiecrats, but against the Administration.... To many,
the March had been presented as a gigantic lobby for the Administration's Civil
Rights Bill, but Lewis pointed quickly, unerringly, to the weaknesses in the
bill. Furthermore, by sponsoring a new civil-rights bill, the Administration had
skillfully turned attention to Congress, and deflected the erratic spotlight of
the civil-rights movement from possibly focusing on inadequacies of the
Executive. The straight, crass fact at which John Lewis was aiming is this: the
national government, without any new legislation, has the power to protect Negro
voters and demonstrators from policemen's clubs, hoses and jails—and it has not
used that power.
After leaving SNCC in 1966, Lewis worked with community organizations and was
named community affairs director for the National Consumer Co-op Bank in Atlanta.
Lewis first ran for elective office in 1977, when a vacancy occurred in Georgia's
5th District. A special election was called after President Jimmy Carter
appointed incumbent Congressman Andrew Young to be U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations. Lewis lost the race to Atlanta City Councilman and future Senator Wyche
Fowler. In 1981, Lewis was himself elected to the Atlanta City Council.
In 1986, when Fowler ran for the United States Senate, Lewis defeated fellow
civil rights leader Julian Bond in the Democratic primary to succeed Fowler in
the 5th District. This win was tantamount to election in the heavily Democratic,
majority-black 5th District. Lewis was the second African-American to represent
Georgia in Congress since Reconstruction. Young was the first. Lewis has been re-elected
nine times without serious opposition, often with over 70 percent of the vote.
He has been unopposed for reelection since 2002.
Since 1991, Lewis has been senior chief deputy whip in the Democratic caucus. He
is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc..
Lewis is, according to the Associated Press, "the first major House figure to
suggest impeaching George W. Bush," arguing that the president "deliberately,
systematically violated the law" in authorizing the National Security Agency to
conduct wiretaps without a warrant. Lewis said, "He is not King, he is president."
For many years, he has served on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and
is the chairman of its Subcommittee on Oversight.
Lewis, an outspoken progressive and staunch opponent of the Iraq War, endorsed
Joe Lieberman for re-election to the Senate in 2006, despite Lieberman's loss to
Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary.
He was one of the 31 who voted in the House to not count the electoral votes
from Ohio in the 2004 presidential election.
Lewis delivered the Commencement Address at the University of Massachusetts
Lowell on Sunday June 3, 2007 at Edward A. LeLacheur Park.
In September 2007, Lewis was awarded the Dole Leadership Prize from the Robert J.
Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas.
On October 12, 2007, Lewis endorsed the presidential campaign of Senator Hillary
Clinton. On February 14, 2008, Lewis spoke with the Associated Press and
suggested he might reverse his endorsement in light of Senator Barack Obama's
increased momentum: "It could (happen). There's no question about it. It could
happen with a lot of people. ... We can count, and we see the clock." Later
that day, Lewis announced he was withdrawing his support from Senator Clinton
and would instead cast his superdelegate vote for Barack Obama: "Something is
happening in America and people are prepared and ready to make that great leap."
However, a spokesperson for Lewis' office stated that the report in the New York
Times was "inaccurate". On February 27, 2008, Lewis formally changed his
support and endorsed Barack Obama.