What makes John Lewis a hero?

He was beaten severely and arrested more than once for giving voice to the injustice of Jim Crow segregation laws. During the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Representative Lewis helped found and was named chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Was John Lewis a civil rights leader?

He was the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1963 to 1966. Lewis was one of the “Big Six” leaders of groups who organized the 1963 March on Washington. He fulfilled many key roles in the civil rights movement and its actions to end legalized racial segregation in the United States.

How did John Lewis fight for civil rights as a student?

As a student, Lewis became an activist in the civil rights movement. He organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville and took part in many other civil rights activities as part of the Nashville Student Movement. The Nashville sit-in movement was responsible for the desegregation of lunch counters in the city’s downtown.

What did John Lewis die of?

(CNN) John Robert Lewis, the son of sharecroppers who survived a brutal beating by police during a landmark 1965 march in Selma, Alabama, to become a towering figure of the civil rights movement and a longtime US congressman, has died after a six-month battle with cancer. He was 80.

What is John Lewis most famous for?

John Lewis most commonly refers to: John Lewis (civil rights leader) (born 1940), member of U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia John Lewis & Partners, a chain of department stores in the United Kingdom

Who were the leaders involved in the Civil Rights Movement?

Civil rights leaders meet with President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Johnson after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, 1963. Lewis is fourth from left. As a student, Lewis became an activist in the civil rights movement.