Downtown in Nashville in Davidson County, Tennessee — The American South (East South Central)
John Robert Lewis
Feb. 21, 1940 - July 17, 2020
Photographed By Shane Oliver, December 4, 2021
1. John Robert Lewis Marker (Front)
John Robert Lewis was born on Feb. 21, 1940 to sharecropper parents in Troy, Ala. He entered Nashville's American Baptist Theological Seminary in 1957 and soon began attending non-violence workshops at Clark Memorial Methodist Church with the Rev. James Lawson. These workshops were the foundation of the Nashville Sit-Ins Movement. In late 1959. Lewis took part in "test” sit-ins at nearby Cain-Sloan and Harvey's and was in the group of students arrested at Woolworth on Feb. 27. 1960
Here, Lewis and nine other reinforcement Freedom Riders boarded a Greyhound bus to Ala. on May 17. 1961. In 1963, he was elected chair of the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee and helped plan and was a keynote speaker at the March on Washington. He was attacked in Selma on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965 as part of a voting rights campaign. A 1967 Fisk University graduate, Lewis was elected to Congress in 1986 serving 17 terms until his death on July 17, 2020.
Erected 2021 by The Historical Commission of Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County. (Marker Number 232.)
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African Americans • Civil Rights
this page online
Location. 36° 9.685′ N, 86° 46.812′ W. Marker is in Nashville, Tennessee, in Davidson County. It is in Downtown. Marker is on Commerce Street just west of St. Cloud Alley, on the left when traveling west. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 520 Commerce St, Nashville TN 37203, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Ryman Auditorium (about 400 feet away, measured in a direct line); Birth of Bluegrass (about 400 feet away); Vine Street Temple (about 500 feet away); Little Jimmy Dickens (about 500 feet away); Downtown Presbyterian Church (about 600 feet away); The Downtown Presbyterian Church II (about 600 feet away); Campaign for the Vote (about 600 feet away); Vine Street Christian Church (about 700 feet away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Nashville.
Also see . . . . (Submitted on July 20, 2021, by Darren Jefferson Clay of Duluth, Georgia.)
Photographed By Duane and Tracy Marsteller, July 19, 2021
2. John Robert Lewis Marker (Side B)
Photographed By Duane and Tracy Marsteller, July 31, 2021
3. John Robert Lewis Marker
Photographed By Darren Jefferson Clay, July 20, 2021
4. John Robert Lewis Marker
United States House of Representatives, July 20, 2021
5. John Robert Lewis Marker
Credits. This page was last revised on February 7, 2023. It was originally submitted on July 20, 2021, by Darren Jefferson Clay of Duluth, Georgia. This page has been viewed 401 times since then and 53 times this year. Photos: 1. submitted on December 26, 2021, by Shane Oliver of Richmond, Virginia. 2. submitted on July 22, 2021, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. 3. submitted on August 1, 2021, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. 4, 5. submitted on July 20, 2021, by Darren Jefferson Clay of Duluth, Georgia. • Devry Becker Jones was the editor who published this page.
