John Lewis (U.S. politician)

John Robert Lewis ( born February 21, 1940 in Troy, Alabama ) is an American politician (Democratic Party). He was an important leader of the American civil rights movement, speaker at the March on Washington in 1963 and played a key role in ending racial segregation in the United States. As a member of the Democrats since 1987, he represents the 5th District of Georgia in the House of Representatives of the United States; Previously, he was a city councilor from 1982 to 1986 in Atlanta.

Lewis was one of the first deputies who proposed to relieve President George W. Bush of the Office. He justified this by saying that the President had knowingly and systematically broken the law when he authorized the NSA to intercept telephone conversations without a court order. Quote Lewis: " He is not a king, he is president. "

After Lewis had initially supported the election campaign of Hillary Clinton, he sat down later for a nomination of Barack Obama as a presidential candidate of the Democratic Party in 2008. In 2011 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the USA. In May 2012, the University of Pennsylvania awarded him an honorary doctorate.