Pike County's John Lewis: National Civil Rights Icon - Troy, AL
Posted by: 
hoteltwo
N 31° 48.535 W 085° 57.942
16R E 597899 N 3519721
Located next to the Troy Public Library, describes a part of Civil RIghts leader John Lewis life up to and including the attack on the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama.
Waymark Code: WM13XG9
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 03/07/2021
Views: 2
Marker text:
Pike County's John Lewis: National Civil Rights Icon
John Lewis was born in rural Pike County on February 21, 1940 to sharecroppers during the era that African Americans in the South were subjected to segregation in education and public facilities, and prevented by legal discrimination from voting.
A bright youngster, Lewis was denied access to the public library in Troy. He attended segregated schools. He was inspired by the courageous examples of Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to oppose segregation. He participated in lunch counter sit-ins while attending college in Nashville. In 1961, racist whites brutally beat Lewis and other Freedom Riders during provocative demonstrations testing compliance of the 1960 Boynton v. Virginia court decision.
Lewis was a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and served as president from 1963 to 1966. At age 23, he was the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
He and fellow voting-rights activist Hosea Williams were among numerous marchers severely beaten and tear-gassed on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. The attack on “Bloody Sunday” led President Lyndon Johnson to push Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965.