NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Officials in Nashville have renamed most of a street after civil rights icon John Lewis, who help desegregate the city’s lunch counters before becoming a long-serving congressman in Georgia.
Metro Council members voted Thursday to rename a large portion of Fifth Avenue North to Rep. John Lewis Way, The Tennessean reported.
Credit: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Councilwoman Zulfat Suara submitted the request this fall and included some of the highlights of Lewis' work and its impact.
As a college student at American Baptist College and then Fisk University, Lewis helped desegregate public spaces in Nashville and pushed for racial justice across the South. Lewis was a Freedom Rider, he spoke at the March on Washington and he was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama.
Credit: Curtis Compton
Credit: Curtis Compton
“Nashville prepared me,” Lewis said in 2013. “If it hadn’t been for Nashville, I would not be the person I am now.”
Credit: Curtis Compton
Credit: Curtis Compton
Lewis died July 17. He was 80.
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