Part of the reason Lewis is revered today is because he was not only one of the "big six" civil rights leaders of the 60s, but a brave activist on the front line of often brutal encounters with segregationist authorities in the deep south. As chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at the height of the civil rights movement, he was arrested more than 40 times and knew many of those who lost their lives fighting for the cause.
Half a century ago, John Lewis, a 23-year-old student leader, stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and looked out a sea of black and white faces. It was 1963, and the crowd had gathered in Washington for the most significant protest of the civil rights era.
Lewis saw hundreds of thousands of people, stretched into the distance; some had climbed trees for a better view, while others stood knee-deep in the memorial's long rectangular pool. "It was a hot day," Lewis recalls. "I said to myself: 'This is it, I must go forward.' And then I started speaking."
Now a 73-year-old Democratic congressman, Lewis is the only surviving speaker from the March on Washington, the landmark protest that culminated in Martin Luther King's famous "I have a dream" speech. He will return to the steps of the memorial later this month for the 50th anniversary of that march, which was a turning point for for the civil rights movement.
The March on Washington gave the campaign for equal rights an unstoppable momentum, helping to pass the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act – the two legislative pillars to emerge from the civil rights era. But according to Lewis, the 50th anniversary comes at difficult time for race relations in America. In an interview with the Guardian, he said:
The legacy of slavery and segregation dehumanises people. We have not yet escaped the bitterness. And we don't want to talk about it.
Two recent developments have jarred with the image of a country progressive enough to elect a black man to the White House. A recent Supreme Court decision effectively dismantled one of the key enforcement provisions in the Voting Rights Act, allowing southern states like Texas and North Carolina to implement changes to election rulesthan experts say discriminate against minority voters.
The later decision by a jury in Florida to acquit George Zimmerman over the killing of the black teenager Trayvon Martin has been cited by many – including president Barack Obama – as evidence of a legacy of persistent racial prejudice. "This is not a post-racial society," Lewis said. "Racism is still deeply embedded in American society, and you can't cover it up.".. read more:
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