Even as a schoolboy, Lewis observed that roads and modern conveniences which aided the development of the white community were denied to poverty-stricken African American neighborhoods in the Troy area.
While he was a teenager Lewis felt the call to the gospel ministry and began to preach periodically in local churches. He listened regularly to a radio gospel program presented by a young Boston-trained theologian, Martin Luther King, Jr., and was inspired because King, a southern African American man, was intelligent, articulate, and interesting. King also had thoughtful ideas about addressing the problems of racial injustice through passive resistance. When Lewis was 15 he learned of the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott led by King, Ralph D. Abernathy, and other members of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). The MIA led the vast majority of the African Americans in the city in their decision to refuse to ride the segregated city busses unless they were treated more fairly by white drivers and passengers. It filled Lewis with pride to see the African American community of Montgomery acting in concert and with determination to continue the boycott until the bus company agreed to their demands.
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