John Lewis

CHARLES RYAN ARMOUR: I grew up pretty sheltered just outside of Atlanta. I really didn’t know much about the civil rights movement until I got older. My parents grew up in rural Georgia so they both knew what it was like growing up in the Jim Crow era. I was two years old when John Lewis was elected to congress, I’m 37 now and he’s been my congressman nearly my entire life. I really didn’t experience much racism in my own life, but learning the history and seeing what’s happening in our country today has really opened my eyes. 

LILIANE KSHENSKY BAXTER, PH.D. (LILI BAXTER): I remember first meeting John back in 1979. I had just started working at the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, and he was with the Voter Education Project. As I walked into a neighborhood-planning unit meeting I saw somebody setting up the chairs —  and it was John. So when people say he was humble, he really was humble. He did what needed to be done, and at that moment it was setting up chairs.