Role Model Of John Lewis Civil Rights Movement

When we are little we have dreams and goals to do big things in this crazy world in which we live. We also have role models that we look up to for guidance. March Trilogy by John Lewis, is based in the 1960’s when the United States was known for the civil rights era; where hundreds of thousands of people were fighting for equal rights for the colored. John Lewis was one of these very brave souls. And like us, John Lewis also had many different people and organizations who influenced him. Jim Lawson, SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), and Martin Luther King Jr. had the biggest roles by influencing Lewis in his life, and influencing Lewis’ ideas on civil rights.
From a young age Lewis’ family had always know he was different.

After the secretary of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) was shot and killed in his driveway, the SNCC’s chairman Chuck Mcdew resigned. In Lewis’s view he states, “It seemed strange to me—I saw myself as a DOER. I never had any thoughts of being chairman….and I was elected chairman of the SNCC” (Lewis and Ayden en 1:141, 142). And just like that Lewis was becoming something big. SNCC was going to do good things for Lewis, it was going to take him on new adventures Lewis had never thought were possible as a black man. According to Lewis, “As chairman of SNCC, I had to work at SNCC headquarters in Atlanta for a salary of $10 a week….It was a big change from the floors and couches I called home while living on the road, but my new responsibilities would never let me stay there for long anyways” (Lewis and Ayden en 1:144). Just shortly after Lewis had moved into his apartment he had been called to Washington DC for a meeting with the President to discuss a march on Washington. SNCC forced Lewis to do great things such as participating as a member of The Big Six that would speak at The March on Washington August 28th, 1963. Members of The Big Six included Martin Luther King Jr, James Farmer, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkens, Whitney Young, and of course John

Although they weren’t preschool buddies, they met when Lewis was getting ready to attend college and wanted to go to Troy State. MLK was going make that happen, he would help Lewis to be the first colored student at Troy State, but at that time Lewis wasn’t quite ready to sacrifice his friends, family, and neighbors by endangering them to the racist whites. Lewis wanted to proceed in MLK’s steps for everything he did. He wanted the same thing as MLK which was civil rights. Lawson who first spoke to Lewis about peaceful protest wasn’t the only person who kept the idea flowing in Lewis’ head, MLK believed in peaceful protest as well. And although the idea of peaceful protest was to have zero violence, it never seemed to happen that way. Lewis tell us, “Violence does beget violence, but the opposite is just as true” (Lewis and Ayden en 1:100)(see figure 1). At least so they hoped. MLK, Lewis, and Lawson all believed that if they did not start any problems and remained peaceful then there would be no issues. They were wrong. The whites still beat them senseless and who was arrested? The colored and the people standing up for what is the constitutional right. MLK had a huge impact on Lewis by also showing him that breaking an unjust law is not really “breaking the law”. In a letter from Birmingham Jail MLK argues, “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that