John Lewis at a meeting of American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1964 and his official U.S. Congress portrait. Lewis is now a congressman for Georgia's fifth district but began his career as a civil rights activist. He participated in sit-ins and marches to help end segregation. Lewis was also one of the youngest people to give a speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the same march where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech.