Description

In this interview John Lewis discusses his early years in rural Alabama and his work as a civil rights leader and U.S. Representative. He covers his early activism and education in non-violence in Nashville as a student of Fisk University's American Baptist Theological Seminary, his participitation in the Freedom Rides, and his work organizing demonstrations as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He discusses his relationships with other civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Hosea Williams, and James Lawson, and his involvment in sit-ins and marches, including his experiences being assaulted and jailed. He also gives details about his experience in the famous march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.Finding aid available in repository.John Robert Lewis was born February 21, 1940 in Troy, Alabama. He graduated from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he became a leader in the Nashville sit-ins. While a student he was invited to participate in non-violence workshops in the basement of Clark Memorial United Methodist Church, and he later participated in the Freedom Rides. From 1963 to 1966, Lewis served as chairmen of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Along with Martin Luther King, Jr., he spoke at the August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In 1964 he helped coordinate the "Freedom Summer" in Mississippi, a campaign to register black voters across the South. Lewis was a leader in the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, where, in Selma, he and other marchers were beaten and dispersed with...

Record Contributed By

Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia