Meeting with Rep. John Lewis

Dear 8th grade families,

We are excited to share with you an additional special event that will happen next week on our DC trip.

We are very fortunate to have the opportunity to meet with Rep. John Lewis.  As you may know, Rep. Lewis is a true American icon.  He was one of the key leaders of the Civil Rights Movement - a sit-in organizer, a Freedom Rider, and the leader of the Selma-to-Montgomery March in 1965.  Rep. Lewis is the sole surviving speaker from the March on Washington.  In 2011 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Rep. Lewis has been in Congress since 1986.  He remains one of our country's most articulate proponents of nonviolence and social justice.

Our grade will have the opportunity to meet with Rep. Lewis Wednesday morning, April 10th.  It is an experience all of us (teachers, staff and students) will surely treasure for years to come.

Rep. Lewis' website is here:  http://johnlewis.house.gov/.  You can read more about his life and work here:  http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/lew0bio-1. 

Just this week, Rep. Lewis was in the news twice.  He was interviewed on the radio show "On Being" [http://www.onbeing.org/program/john-lewis-on-the-art-and-discipline-of-nonviolence/5126] and his forgiveness of one of a Ku Klux Klan member was profiled in a New York Times obituary. [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/us/elwin-wilson-who-apologized-for-racist-acts-dies-at-76.html?ref=obituaries&_r=0]

Thanks for your continued support of your children, this trip, and our school.

Best wishes,

The Martin Luther King House Staff