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John Robert Lewis (born 1940), 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.
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 of ten children. The family led a relatively simple rural existence, with Eddie working as a tenant farmer and later a land holder while Willie Mae earned money by taking in laundry. The Lewis children were raised in a religious atmosphere characterized by loving concern for each child. No amount of love, however, could shield young John from the adverse effects of racial segregation then prevalent in Alabama. He was bussed past a well-equipped high school for white children to a one-room schoolhouse which only inadequately served the needs of African American students.
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