No stranger to youth activism, Congressman John Lewis will be the keynote speaker at the student-led March for Our Lives march Saturday in Atlanta.
The demonstration grew from the frustration felt by students across the country after 17 people were gunned down on Valentine's Day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. The outcry became a call to action when kids in virtually every school system in America walked out of class on March 14 to bring attention to gun violence in schools.
A highlight of the student organization will be a march and rally noon Saturday in Washington, D.C. and 11 a.m. Saturday in Atlanta as well as various sites throughout the country.
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Lewis is perhaps best known for his role during his college days as a freedom fighter for civil rights. He was among the organizers who marched in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery on March 7, 1965 to bring an end to Jim Crow era voting registration policies. The event, later called Bloody Sunday, resulted in Lewis as well as many others being beaten before making the 54-mile trek to the state capital.
On Aug. 6, 1965 the Voting Rights Act went into effect.
Lewis went on to represent Georgia's 5th congressional district, serving since 1987.
The Atlanta march begins at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights with the actual march beginning at noon. It will end at Liberty Plaza.
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