John Robert Lewis: A Revolutionary Leader

While thinking of a revolutionary leader, Congressman John Robert Lewis came to mind. As a courageous transformational leader, he began his journey with the need of equality for African Americans. He was one of the "Big Six" leaders of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In his early mission for equality, he challenged the law and with determination for change but the justice system let him down. According to his biography, despite more than 40 arrests, physical attacks and serious injuries, Lewis remained a devoted advocate of the philosophy of nonviolence and equality. Today, he is involved with the government by continuously making some positive social change. Lewis is a Representative of the 5th Congressional District of Georgia, fighting for the civil and human rights. Lewis was raised during the segregation era, with limited opportunities as an African American. Having a different perspectives of his father’s career, who raised him with a career as a sharecropper, he wanted to make a difference of the injustices that occurred in the life of African Americans, more specifically, when it came to …show more content…
Participating in the sit-ins demanded sacrifice and discipline to assure you can handle the harassment, such as the behaviors of the white Americans that would spit, curse, hit them with objects, toss items at them, call them harsh names for it to be effective. As Lewis quotes, “When I was growing up, my mother and father and family members said, 'Don 't get in trouble. Don 't get in the way. ' I got in trouble. I got in the way. It was necessary trouble.” Lewis was arrested in these sit-ins for a cause of what he believed, the need to improve equality for African American