U.S. Rep. John Lewis will speak at Judson College on Feb. 21 on the theme, “A Path to Reconciliation and Healing,” and receive the honorary doctorate of humane letters.
Afterward the congressman will sign copies of his books, “Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement” and “Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change.”
Born in Troy to a family of sharecroppers, Lewis attended segregated public schools in Pike County. During the height of the civil rights movement in the mid-60s he founded and chaired the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). SNCC was largely responsible for organizing student activism including sit-ins and other activities.
Along with Hosea Williams and Albert Turner Sr., of Marion, and Amelia Boynton, of Selma, Lewis led more than 600 protesters across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on March 7, 1965. Marchers planned to walk to Montgomery to demonstrate the need for voting rights in the state but were attacked in a brutal confrontation that became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
Lewis was elected to Congress in 1986 and has served Georgia’s 5th Congressional District since then. Lewis earned degrees from Fisk University and the American Baptist Theological Seminary, both in Nashville.
The ceremony will take place in the Ramsay-McCrummen Chapel at 11 a.m. and the book signing will follow in the Gladys Dunkin Parlors in Jewett Hall.
For more information, contact Billie Jean Young at 334-683-5288.
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