IL HR0807

Designates a day to honor John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020), civil rights leader and U.S. Congressman from Georgia who served over three decades in Congress

Recognizes Lewis's role as one of the 13 original Freedom Riders in 1961, founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and organizer of the 1963 March on Washington at age 23

Commemorates Lewis leading 600 peaceful demonstrators on "Bloody Sunday" (March 7, 1965) across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where he suffered a fractured skull from police brutality, helping lead to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Acknowledges Lewis's work as director of the Voter Education Project starting in 1970, which added nearly 4 million minority voters to voter rolls

Honors Lewis's awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2011) and the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award (2001), and his legacy as the "conscience of the Congress"