“I would say the country is a different country. It is a better country. The signs I saw when I was growing up are gone and they will not return. In many ways the walls of segregation have been torn down.”

American civil rights activist and statesman

John Robert Lewis was an American civil rights activist and statesman. He served in the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020. Lewis was a long-serving member of Congress and a leading figure in the American civil rights movement. His public life combined activism and elected office, and his name is closely tied to the struggle for civil rights in the United States.