U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a leading activist of the civil rights movement, will give the undergraduate commencement address at N.C. Central University on Saturday, May 14.

As a student at Fisk University, Lewis organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tenn, according to a university news release. In 1961, he participated in the Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation at interstate bus terminals across the South. Despite being beaten by angry mobs and arrested by police, Lewis continued to defy and fight Jim Crow legislation.
 
In 1963, he was named chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) the release continues. Though just 23 years old, he was considered one of the “Big Six” leaders of the movement, along with Whitney Young, A. Phillip Randolph, Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer and Roy Wilkins. He was an organizer and speaker at the historic March on Washington in August of 1963.