John Lewis was a leader in the civil rights movement. He was born in Alabama on February 21, 1940 and is still alive today at 79. He is a U.S. representative for a Georgia district and is serving his 17th term. He's been a politician since 1987. He was married to Lillian Miles until she died in 2012. He went to to fisk university and american baptist college.
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Other Facts About John Lewis
He is the chairman of SNCC (student nonviolent coordinating committee)
He went to a segregated school and his parents encouraged him not to challenge the laws and just mind his own business.
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He led the march that was stopped by police violence on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. This is also known as "Bloody Sunday".
In university he studied non-violent protests and started to become involved in sit-ins.
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Sometimes you have to get in the way. You have to make some noise by speaking up and speaking out against injustice and inaction.
Civil Rights
The civil rights movement was a fight for social justice that took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s. Blacks wanted equal rights under the United States law. The Civil War abolished slavery but there was still a lot of racism and segregation
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