U.S. Rep. John Lewis to keynote IU South Bend’s ‘Conversations on Race V’

His public presentation will be at 3 p.m. Nov. 17 in the main auditorium of Northside Hall. A book signing will follow.

Lewis is scheduled to be on campus from 11:30 a.m.- 5 p.m. that day and the visit will include a lunch and a discussion with students involved in IU South Bend’s new Civil Rights Heritage Center. (See Web sites at the end of this story for more information about the center.)

“Conversations on Race V” weekend begins Nov. 16 with a youth leadership gathering at 8:30 a.m. The conversations sessions will begin at 10:15 a.m. and a second session begins at 12:30 p.m. All three events are in Wiekamp Hall. A “Poetry Jam” is scheduled from 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. in the second- floor lounge of Wiekamp Hall.As in the past years, faculty, staff and students will lead the discussion groups on a variety of race-related topics. All events are free and open to the public. Lewis is currently serving his eighth term as 5th District congressman. The area he serves includes Atlanta and parts of Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton counties.

The congressman is well known for his close affiliations with Martin Luther King Jr., the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, voter registration drives and the Freedom Riders. Born in Troy, Ala., in 1940, he was raised along with nine siblings on his family’s 110-acre farm. He attended segregated schools in Pike County, Ala., and as a student at Fisk University, began his involvement in sit-ins and other nonviolent protests. In 1961, he volunteered to participate in the Freedom Riders, which was a test to desegregate the interstate transportation facilities. The Greyhound buses originated in Washington, D.C., and transported black and white passengers throughout the South. Many of the riders were arrested for sit-ins, stand-ins and for using “white only” lunch counters, water fountains and sitting areas.

In 1963, he was one of the organizers of the March on Washington. At the age of 23, he spoke to 250,000 people on the National Mall. His poignant speech catapulted him into the middle of the national civil rights spotlight. In 1965, Lewis and 600 others marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. The confrontation is known today as “Bloody Sunday.” State troopers kicked and clubbed marchers and injured scores. The publicity following the march and other subsequent marches led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Lewis later was named director of the Voter Education Project (VEP). Under his leadership, VEP added 4 million minority names to the voter rolls.

In 1977, he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to direct the 250,000 volunteers of ACTION, the federal volunteer agency. In 1980, he moved on to become the community affairs director of the national Consumer Co-op Bank in Atlanta. His first political victory came in 1981 when he was elected to the Atlanta City Council. Five years later, he ran for the congressional seat and won.

For archival stories related to IU South Bend’s Civil Rights Heritage Center, go to these HP Web sites:

http://homepages.indiana.edu/041301/text/heritage.html

http://www.iuinfo.indiana.edu/homepages/052600/text/civil.htm