John Lewis

John Robert Lewis (1940-2020), a veteran of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives by the citizens of Atlanta, Georgia, in 1986. After his election, Lewis won reelection several times, representing Georgia's Fifth Congressional District. In 2011 Lewis was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama. He was also the first United States congressman to write a graphic novel. Lewis died on July 17, 2020.

John R. Lewis--a native of Troy, Alabama--first achieved national attention while he was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the 1960s. Lewis was born on February 21, 1940, to Willie Mae and Eddie Lewis. He was one...