John Robert Lewis (known to his family as Robert) was born on February 21, 1940, in Pike County, Alabama. He was raised in the Jim Crow South, experiencing racial segregation from a young age. He credits his mother, other relatives, and childhood experiences like raising chickens, with instilling in him the values of nonviolence, compassion, and steadfastness. These qualities allowed him to become one of the CRM’s most visible young leaders.

Lewis participated in and was an eyewitness to major events of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s: Nashville lunch counter sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, voter registration drives, the Birmingham church bombing, the murder of three young men at the start of the Freedom of Summer, the March on Washington, the Selma-to-Montgomery March, the Voter’s Rights Act, and more. Through the trials and tribulations of the CRM, Lewis never gave up on the power of nonviolence in reshaping American society for the better.

After the CRM collapsed, Lewis grew interested in politics. In 1986, he was elected as the US Representative for Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District, a seat he held until his death in 2020. He became Chief Deputy Whip in 1991, and Senior Chief Deputy Whip in 2003. His

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