“Public speaking, or playacting of any sort, terrified me.” (John Lewis about his youth)
"I was born in Alabama, 50 miles from Montgomery, in southeast Alabama, in a the little town of about 13,000 people just outside of Troy. When I would visit the cities of Montgomery or Birmingham, I saw the signs that said white men and white women, I saw the signs that said colored lady, colored men. In 1950 when I was 10 years old I tried to check a book out of the local library, I tried to get a library card and I was told that the library was only for white people and not people of color. It had an unbelievable impact on me. I couldn't understand it. But in 1955 when I was 15 years old I heard about Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. And, 3 years later I met MLK and a year later I got involved in the civil rights movement." (via NPR Radio) "This was my fight."
Lewis acted on his ideals. He sent a letter asking MLK for support to desegregate Troy University. King responded, “It’s not just you who could be hurt, John. Your parents could be harassed. They could lose work, lose their jobs. They could be assaulted.” Lewis desired protest but could not force others to bear his burden, “It was one thing to decide this was my fight, but I had no right to make it theirs.” Lewis found an outlet for his strong sense of justice when Rev. James Lawson began housing on-campus meetings at ABT in September 1959. “That is America to me – not just the movement for Civil Rights but the endless struggle to respond with decency, dignity and a sense of brotherhood all the challenges that face us as a nation.” (John Lewis) |
Childhood
John Lewis was born in Troy, Alabama to sharecroppers. Lewis says, “We were poor – dirt poor – only I didn't realize it.” Raised in secluded Carter’s Quarters, Lewis had limited biracial contact. In 1955, he heard of Emmitt Till’s death and the ‘not guilty’ verdict. The system was unjust, Lewis thought. “By the end of [1955] I was chewing myself up with questions and frustration and, yes, anger – anger not at white people in particular but at the system that allowed and encouraged this type of inhumanity to exist.” College
John Lewis attended American Baptist Theological and quickly delved into Martin Luther King's teachings, saying, “And then, of course, there was Dr. King. He was everything I wanted to be.” Lewis’s ideals caught others’ eyes. James Bevel, a reformer whom Lewis later influenced, asked him, “Lewis, why you always preaching this Social Gospel and not the gospel Gospel.” |