John Lewis to receive ABA Thurgood Marshall Award

The American Bar Association Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice will honor Georgia Congressman and Civil Rights leader John Lewis with its 2019 Thurgood Marshall Award. Lewis is one of the original 13 Freedom Riders, a founding member and chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the surviving “Big Six” civil rights leader who organized the 1964 March on Washington, a 17-term congressional leader, and one of only two Lifetime Achievement recipients of the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award.

The award will be presented at the Thurgood Marshall Award Dinner on Saturday, Aug. 10, at 8 p.m. at the Westin St. Francis Hotel during the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco. The award honors U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who epitomized individual commitment, in word and action, to the cause of civil rights in this country. The award recognizes similar long-term contributions by other members of the legal profession to the advancement of civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights in the United States.

Lewis, U.S. Representative of Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District, has served there since 1986. Protecting human rights and securing civil liberties has been the hallmark of his career. As a college student, Lewis organized sit-in demonstrations and participated in Freedom Rides, to challenge the injustice of Jim Crow segregation in the South. A devoted advocate of the philosophy of nonviolence, Lewis was arrested more than 40 times and endured physical attacks and serious injuries for the advancement of the Civil Rights Movement.

“Now more than ever, his words are relevant, his voice is vital, and his presence is powerful,” said Wilson Adam Schooley, chair of the Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice. “A legendary lion of the civil rights movement, John Lewis still roars, and we all need to hear his clarion call.”

Lewis is the Senior Chief Deputy Whip for the Democratic Party in leadership in the House, a member of the House Ways & Means Committee, a member of its Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, and the Ranking Member of its Subcommittee on Oversight.

Lewis, a former Atlanta city councilman, earned his undergraduate degree in Religion and Philosophy from Fisk University and is a graduate of the American Baptist Theological Seminary. He holds multiple honorary degrees from Fisk, Harvard, Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Duke, Columbia, Morehouse College, Clark-Atlanta University, Howard University, Brandeis University, and Troy State University.