On Mar. 7, 1965, along with fellow activist Hosea Williams, Lewis led more than 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. State troopers attacked the marchers in a confrontation that became known as "Bloody Sunday." That fateful march and a subsequent march between Selma and Montgomery, Ala. led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In 1977, Lewis was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to direct more than 250,000 volunteers of ACTION, the federal volunteer agency. His first electoral success came in 1981, when he was elected to the Atlanta City Council. He resigned from the Council in 1986 to successfully run for Congress.
Lewis currently represents Georgia's Fifth Congressional District, encompassing the entire city of Atlanta and parts of Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton and Cobb counties. He is currently serving his ninth term in office.
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