Kentucky State University News February 19, 2014 U.S. Congressman John Lewis Speaks At KSU For Black History Month Civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis was the keynote speaker at Kentucky State University's Black History Month Convocation on Feb. 19, which included a tribute by the university's Concert Choir and an onstage interview of Lewis by the event moderators, freshman students Leanna Trombley and Ralph Williams. "Come and walk in my shoes, and I'll show you change," said Lewis, In Bradford Hall's Carl H. Smith Auditorium, Lewis spoke before a large crowd of students, faculty, staff, alumni and others in the community who wanted to hear the only living "Big Six" leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, having been the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Lewis coordinated SNCC's efforts to organize voter registration drives and community action programs during the Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964. The following year he helped spearhead the intended march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., on March 7, 1965. The marchers were attacked by Alabama state troopers in a brutal confrontation that became known as "Bloody Sunday." Lewis, who grew up in the 1940s as the son of sharecroppers who raised chickens, said he was inspired by listening to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the radio and by Rosa Parks. These individuals and the Montgomery Bus Boycott "inspired me to find a way to get in the way, to get in trouble, what I call good trouble." He also encouraged students to get into good trouble. "Be faithful to a cause," he said. Lewis discussed civil rights in America today. He said the Voting Rights Act is sacred and must be protected. He also said the country needs immigration reform because it does not make sense that so many are considered illegal when "we all came from someplace." And he said we should continue to work on rights for gays and lesbians. "You cannot have equality for some and not have equality for all," Lewis said. After his address, Lewis was given a gift of appreciation from KSU students. He was also bestowed with the honorary Kentucky Colonel title by Colman Elridge III, executive assistant to Gov. Steve Beshear. Colman said the governor wanted to thank Lewis for his activism on behalf of 4.3 million Kentuckians. Praising Lewis for his lifetime of civil rights work, Elridge said, "He gives us hope and invests in us all." Lewis was elected to Congress in November 1986 and has served as the U.S. Representative of Georgia's 5th Congressional District since then. He is Senior Chief Deputy Whip for the Democratic Party in the House, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, a member of its Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support and ranking member of its Subcommittee on Oversight. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.