Life of Georgia Congressman John Lewis Remembered in Montgomery
The life and legacy of Georgia Congressman John Lewis was remembered Friday in Montgomery.
A wreath was laid in his memory at the Civil Rights Memorial Center.
Lewis was a native of Pike County. When he was a young man, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and others took notice of his fight for civil rights and nicknamed him “The Boy from Troy.”
His beating by Alabama state troopers in Selma in 1965 helped galvanize opposition to racial segregation. By that time he was a major leader in the Civil Rights Movement, having helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
He was elected to a U.S. House seat in Georgia in 1986. He served until his death in 2020 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 80.
“As a member of the United States Congress in the seat that was held by Congressman John Lewis, I don’t take it lightly,” U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams of Georgia’s 5th Congressional District said. “I understand with everything that’s going on in the country right now around our history, what can and cannot be taught to our children that I have an obligation to be here and continue to tell the stories.”
