“It was not enough to come and listen to a great sermon or message every Sunday morning and be confined to those four walls and those four corners. You had to get out and do something.”

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.