Today, we celebrate John Lewis (1940-2020), an icon of the Civil Rights Movement.
John Lewis was the youngest speaker on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the famous 1963 March on Washington. He was chosen to speak in part, because of his work as a student organizer of non-violent protests in Nashville, Tennessee against segregation.
He also participated in the organized march from Selma to Montgomery where he and the other non-violent protesters were attacked by Alabama’s state troopers after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Later John Lewis became a U.S. Representative from the state of Georgia. Recently he authored a 3 part graphic novel series titled March.
In 2020, a documentary about his life, titled John Lewis: Good Trouble, was released on streaming services.