John Robert Lewis (1940 - 2020)

Born 21 Feb 1940 in Troy, Pike, Alabama, United States

Ancestors

Died 17 Jul 2020 at age 80 in Atlanta, DeKalb, Georgia, United States

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Biography

John Lewis is Notable.

John Lewis was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

John Lewis was awarded the Spingarn Medal for outstanding achievement by an African American.

John Lewis was featured in a media genealogy show.

John Robert Lewis was an American politician and prominent civil rights leader. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district for over 20 years. He was involved in many civil rights actions; in 1965 he led the first of three Selma to Montgomery marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where, in an incident which became known as Bloody Sunday, state troopers and police attacked Lewis and the other marchers.^[1]

John was born in 1940 in Troy, Alabama to parents Eddie Lewis and Willie Mae Carter. In the census of that year, John was listed as an infant living with his parents and two older siblings in Cross Roads, Pike County, Alabama.^[2][3] By 1950 John was one of 8 children in his parents' household in Cross Roads.^[4]

John graduated from the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, and Fisk University before he married Lillian May Miles about 1968.^[2] Lillian was a graduate of the University of Southern California and had been a Peace Corps volunteer. At the time of their marriage she was curator of the African-American collection and director of the Special Services Department at the Trevor Arnett Library at Atlanta University. John and Lillian had one son.

John won a seat on the Atlanta City Council in 1981, and served until he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986, where he served 17 terms. He was one of the leaders of the Democratic Party in the House, serving from 1991 as a chief deputy whip and from 2003 as a senior chief deputy whip. He received many honorary degrees and awards.^[1]

n 2010, President Obama honored Rep. Lewis’ lifetime of activism with the nation’s highest civilian honor: the Presidential Medal of Freedom.^[5]

John died on 17 July 2020 at the age of 80 and was buried in South View Cemetery, Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, United States.^[6]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Wikidata: Item Q45380, en:Wikipedia
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Marriage: Free View of Clipping "U.S., Newspapers.com™ Marriage Index, 1800s-current"
   The Tennessean; Publication Date: 8/ Dec/ 1968; Publication Place: Nashville, Tennessee, USA; URL: https://www.newspapers.com/image/113271596/?article=309ce60a-883a-43dc-b628-4ce889574a1f&focus=0.05222098,0.031171672,0.407345,0.16461188&xid=3398
   Ancestry Record 62116 #108062400 (accessed 2 February 2024)
   John Lewis marriage to Lillian Miles on 21 Dec 1968 in Atlanta.
3. ↑ 1940 Census: "1940 United States Federal Census"
   Year: 1940; Census Place: Cross Roads, Pike, Alabama; Roll: m-t0627-00075; Page: 17A; Enumeration District: 55-11
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 2442 #66436457 (accessed 2 February 2024)
   John Robert Lewis (1/12), single son, in household of Eddie Lewis (30) in Cross Roads, Pike, Alabama. Born in Alabama.
4. ↑ 1950 Census: "1950 United States Federal Census"
   National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Cross Roads, Pike, Alabama; Roll: 4750; Page: 20; Enumeration District: 55-16
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 62308 #100450357 (accessed 2 February 2024)
   John R Lewis (10), single son, in household of Eddie Lewis (39) in Cross Roads, Pike, Alabama, USA. Born in Alabama.
5. ↑ The Obama Foundation
6. ↑ Burial: "U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current"
   Original data: Find a Grave. Find a Grave®. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi; URL: Find A Grave: Memorial #213141171
   Ancestry Record 60525 #177094329 (accessed 2 February 2024)
   John Robert Lewis burial (died on 17 Jul 2020) in South View Cemetery, Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, United States of America. Born on 21 Feb 1940.

See also:

• Wikipedia: John Lewis
• "John Lewis and Cory Booker." Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Season 1, Episode 2). PBS. 25 Mar 2012.
• Obituary, The Washington Post, 18 Jul 2020
• "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V15M-1WW : 29 February 2020), John Robert Lewis in household of Eddie Lewis, Election Precinct 4, Pike, Alabama, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 55-11, sheet 17A, line 16, family 289, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 75.