Biografía

One of the thirteen original freedom riders, and was on board the bus the night the bus was firebombed on May 14, 1961 in Anniston, Alabama, USA. Lewis and the other Freedom Riders were able to get off the bus before the fire consumed the bus interior, only to be beaten and clubbed by the waiting white mob.

Had his skull fractured by a state trooper, thereby shedding blood left behind on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on what was known as Bloody Sunday during the 1965 voting rights protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

Marched with Martin Luther King during the intended peaceful 1965 voting rights protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, which ended violently on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. While Lewis and the other marchers upheld their pledge of non-violence, the Alabama State Police responded to their "threat" of non-violence with vicious, state condoned violence, including fracturing John Lewis' skull, almost causing his death. Lewis thought he was going to die. He said "I gave a little blood on that bridge," he said years later. "I thought I was going to die. I thought I saw death".

Graduated from the American Baptist Theological Seminary, in Nashville, Tennessee in 1961 with a bachelor's degree in theology. And, graduated from Fisk University (one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, often referred to as HBCUs), in Nashville, Tennessee in 1963 with a bachelor's degree in religion and philosophy.

Was a member of the Atlanta City Council from 1981 to 1986.