John Lewis | Biography, Accomplishments, & Facts - Britannica

Awards, publications, and legacy

In addition to numerous other honors he received, Lewis was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize in 1975, the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2001, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) Spingarn Medal in 2002. In 2011 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His memoirs are Walking with the Wind (1998; cowritten with Michael D’Orso) and the March trilogy (2013, 2015, and 2016; all cowritten with Andrew Aydin and illustrated by Nate Powell), a graphic novel series for young adults that was based on Lewis’s experiences in the civil rights movement. The final installment in the series received numerous honors, including the National Book Award (2016), and Lewis and Aydin shared a Coretta Scott King Book Award (2017). The documentary John Lewis: Good Trouble (2020) chronicles his life and career.

In July 2020, after a battle with pancreatic cancer, Lewis died. Called the “conscience of Congress,” he became the first African American lawmaker to lie in state in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. At his funeral at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (King’s home parish), Lewis was eulogized by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, pioneer of nonviolent resistance James Lawson, and three former U.S. presidents: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. Obama, for whom Lewis was an inspiration and a hero, called Lewis a man of “unbreakable perseverance” and said that he embodied “that most American of ideas— that idea that any of us ordinary people, without rank or wealth or title or fame, can somehow point out the imperfections of this nation and come together and challenge the status quo and decide that it is in our power to remake this country that we love until it more closely aligns with our highest ideals.”

Quick Facts In full: John Robert Lewis (Show more) Born: February 21, 1940, near Troy, Alabama, U.S. (Show more) Died: July 17, 2020, Atlanta, Georgia (aged 80) (Show more) Title / Office: House of Representatives (1987-2020), United States (Show more) Political Party: Democratic Party (Show more) Awards And Honors: Coretta Scott King Book Awards (2017) Presidential Medal of Freedom (2011) Spingarn Medal (2002) Coretta Scott King Book Award (2017) Presidential Medal of Freedom (2011) Spingarn Medal (2002) (Show more) Notable Family Members: son of Eddie Lewis son of Willie Mae Lewis married to Lillian Miles Lewis (1968–2012 [her death]) father of John Miles (Show more) Subjects Of Study: “John Lewis: Good Trouble” (Show more) Role In: American civil rights movement Freedom Rides March on Washington Selma March (Show more) Education: Fisk University (B.A.) American Baptist Theological Seminary (Nashville, Tennessee) (Show more) See all related content Show More Explore Britannica Premium!

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At Lewis’s request, on the day of his funeral, The New York Times published a valedictory essay in which Lewis lauded the Black Lives Matter movement and provided marching orders for future activists, saying in part:

Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.