Rep. John Lewis of Georgia has become the face of the Democrats' unprecedented sit-in at the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday night.
The 17-hour demonstration ended early this morning after Democrats accused Republicans of being "silent for too long" about the "epidemic" of mass shootings in the country. The GOP called the demonstrations a "stunt" and a "disgrace." It's unclear exactly how Democrats will proceed with their efforts to bring up a vote on gun control.
Lewis, who tweeted throughout the event, said he had a "moral obligation to speak up and speak out until the House votes." Lewis is an icon of the Civil Rights Movement.
Lewis has served as a U.S. Representative of Georgia since 1986. But his leadership began much earlier.
After growing up in a segregated school in Alabama, Lewis participated in the Freedom Rides in the early 1960s, when black Americans sat in seats reserved for white passengers.
Though Lewis endured beatings and arrests for his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, he helped form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), later becoming the group's chairman.
In the summer of 1963, when he was 23, Lewis gave a keynote speech in Washington, D.C. He was dubbed one of the Big Six leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.
And two years later, he was among the leaders of the peaceful protest across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. The marchers were violently attacked by Alabama police, an event that hastened the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
Lewis persevered through dozens of arrests, physical attacks and serious injuries, and after leaving the SNCC he became the director of the Voter Education Project.
He was elected to Congress in 1986, a position he has held ever since. He's currently the senior chief deputy whip for the Democrats.
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