March 7 marks the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. The John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation, working with the City of Selma, the Historic Tabernacle Baptist Church Legacy Foundation, and the National Park Service, with the support of Wells Fargo installed two commemorative plaques at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. These plaques trace the Voting Rights journey in Selma from the establishment of the NAACP there in 1918 through Selma to Montgomery March to the election of Barack Obama as the first Black president in 2008 and the election of Kamala Harris as the first Black/Asian American vice president in 2020.
Throughout the year, the Foundation is celebrating what would have been Congressman John Lewis’ 85th birthday. In January, they worked with Minecraft Education to relaunch “Lessons in Good Trouble,” a learning experience to teach young people about Good Trouble. In February, they launched the #JohnLewisSelfie campaign encouraging people to post pictures with John Lewis (or pictures with his books, buildings named after him, murals of him, etc.) to celebrate his birthday (February 21). In June, they will partner with the Theatrical Outfit to stage a hip hop musical about John Lewis’ life, “Young John Lewis.”
In 2025, work on the digitization of Rep. John Lewis’ congressional archives will start in earnest, with a goal of making his congressional papers available to historians, students, and admirers for generations to come. Their signature program for 2025 will be a high school civic engagement and education initiative with commitments from several area school districts building on a 2024 pilot project with Drew Charter School. By the end of the year, they will also give out the first round of Good Troublemaker Neighborhood Grants and Scholarships.
As Congressman John Lewis neared the end of his seventh decade of life, he began to consider what gifts he wanted to leave to the world. He tasked three of his and his wife’s friends with the assignment of launching what became the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation. Incorporated in 2017, the Foundation has at its heart and soul the spirits of John and Lillian Lewis and their passion for learning, engaging, and living God’s purposes for one’s life.
More information about their work can be found at JLMLF.org.