The late Representative John Lewis (D-GA) was honored by Nashville and Davidson County Council members when they voted in favor of naming a stretch of a prominent street after the Civil Rights activist.
What We Know:
- Council members of Nashville and Davidson County approved a bill which honors the late Representative by changing the name of Fifth Avenue in Nashville to “Rep. John Lewis Way”. One bill sponsor and council member, Zulfat Suara told NBC News that the decision was made because “[Nashville] was where he got his start. Nashville gave him his training in non-violent protest.”
- Suara refers to Rep. Lewis’ activism debut when he first protested for civil rights while attending American Baptist College and Fisk University in Nashville. The street, whose name will soon be changed to honor the activist, is also home to Woolworth, where Rep. John Lewis was first arrested at a peaceful protest located at a segregated lunch counter, according to NBC News. Also located along Fifth Avenue is the bus station used by Freedom Riders.
- In a interview from 7 years ago, Rep. John Lewis thanked the city of Nashville for “preparing him”. “If it hadn’t been for Nashville, I would not be the person I am now.”
- Mr. Lewis was deemed the “conscious of the congress” by his colleagues after a long career of activism for Civil Rights. Lewis was arrested 40 times in six years, suffered a broken skull and several bodily injuries, spent a month in the brutal Mississippi Parchman Penitentiary, and was repeatedly abused by mobs and law enforcement just to fight racial injustice brought by Jim Crow laws.
- Most notably, Rep. Lewis led one of the most historic marches in American history on March 7, 1965. Along with 600 peaceful marchers demanding equal rights, Mr. Lewis marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama as a crowd of law enforcement waited on the other side.
John Lewis’ died on July 17th of this year from pancreatic cancer. However, his long, valiant fight against oppression and discrimination is a cause and inspiration for the current efforts that exist today in the ongoing battle for justice and equality in the United States.
