Lewis was one of the Big Six leaders in the American Civil Rights Movement along with Whitney Young, James Farmer, Roy Wilkins, ML King and A. Phillip Randolph. He also chaired the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). His depth of purpose stems from his early segregated and poor up-bringing.

He was instrumental in the successful Nashville sit-in movement, which de-segregated the lunch counters in downtown Nashville. Following that success he participated in the Freedom Rides organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which was led by James Farmer. Lewis was one of the 13 original Freedom Riders. Lewis along with seven Whites and six Blacks were determined to ride from Washington, DC to New Orleans as an integrated group.

These Freedom Rides were done to test a new Supreme Court decision that desegregated interstate travel. For their efforts these courageous people were beaten by angry mobs, and arrested at times and jailed. His training in non-violence earned him 24 arrests. During these times his leadership garnered him the respect of his fellow workers. He was widely respected for his courage and leadership, and still is.

In an interview Lewis said: ” I saw racial discrimination as a young child. I saw those signs that said White Men, Colored Men, White Women, Colored Women…I remember as a young child with some of my brothers and sisters and first cousins going down to the public library trying to get library cards, trying to check some books out, and we were told by the librarian that the library was for whites only and not for coloreds.” He was inspired by Dr. King and Rosa Parks and supported their successful efforts of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

The most productive years for civil rights in America was during the time when Lewis was chairman of the SNCC. In his leadership role SNCC launched the Mississippi Freedom Summer and opened Freedom Schools. He overcame the poverty associated with being the son of sharecropper parents and educated himself. He helped organize the 1963 March on Washington. He was the youngest speaker, age 23, at that demonstration and is the last remaining speaker from the March.

In 1964 Lewis, through SNCC, organized “Mississippi Freedom Summer. This was a campaign to register Black voters across the South. During the first days of the Freedom Summer three civil rights workers were murdered. Bloody Sunday was the name given to that date, March 7, 1965. Lewis and fellow activist Hosea Williams led over 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. At the end of the bridge they were met by Alabama State Troopers. The Troopers ordered them to disperse. At that order the marchers stopped to pray, at which time the Troopers discharged tear gas at them . They also used mounted troopers to charge the demonstrators and at the same time beat them with nightsticks. From this beating Lewis received a fractured skull. He escaped across the bridge, to a church in Selma. Before being taken to the hospital Lewis appeared on television calling on President Johnson to intervene in Alabama. Lewis still bears the scars on his head that are visible today.

Lewis and the SNCC were in hopes that the federal government would step in and stop the violence at the hands of law enforcement and private citizens as well. When Lewis spoke at the 1963 March on Washington he had written in his speech: "Which side is the federal government on?" However that was taken out of his speech because the organizers of the March didn’t want to take the chance of offending the Kennedy Administration. However the question in the minds of all Black and most White Americans was why does the Federal government not step in and stop this Southern brutality.

At the age of 21 John Lewis was the first Freedom Rider to be assaulted in Rock Hill, South Carolina. In an attempt to enter a Whites-only waiting room two White men attacked him. They injured his face and kicked him in the ribs. Nevertheless, only two weeks later Lewis joined a Freedom Ride bound for Jackson, Mississippi. He said: We were determined not to let any act of violence keep us from our goal. We knew our lives could be threatened, but we had made up our minds not to turn back.

The extent of violence was met with an equal amount of determination by Lewis, the Freedom Riders and the members of SNCC. In Anniston, Alabama their bus was set on fire after members of the Klan deflated their tires forcing the bus to come to a halt. In Birmingham, the Riders were mercilessly beaten. In Montgomery a mob met the bus and they were once again beaten. Lewis was left unconscious; he later said that he felt that he would die. The intent of the Freedom Rides was to test the new law banning segregation in public transportation. Not only did it do that but it also exposed the passive nature of the Federal government. Eventually the persistence of SNCC had positive results. In hindsight today’s generation might ask how could one justify such treatment imposed on another human. It was because those implementers of the brutality had a mind-set that didn’t see Blacks as being human. Over years of conditioning Blacks had been characterized as being creatures of nature that should be loathed like vermin. However, over the passage of time with different imagery presenting itself, this view has changed in a positive manner.