CLEVELAND --Police beat and jailed John Lewis, but he worked through the bloody days of the civil rights movement in the South for a future in which he envisioned "a beloved community" where people treat each other justly. Up north, Louis Stokes was fighting a similar battle in Cleveland neighborhoods and the courts as a civil rights attorney. Eventually both men rose to power to become two of the country's leading congressmen.

The Hon. John Lewis from the U.S. House of Representatives' Fifth District in Georgia will be the guest speaker for the inaugural Louis Stokes Symposium on Social Issues and the Community at Case Western Reserve University. Lewis' talk, "Political Action to Build 'The Beloved Community'," begins at 4:30 p.m. Monday, November 19 in Ford Auditorium of Allen Memorial Library. CWRU's Office of the President is sponsoring this free public event. A reception and book signing follow in the library's Powell Room.

CWRU established the symposium in honor of Stokes, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 30 years and co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus. Following his retirement in 1999, Stokes returned to his alma mater to join the CWRU faculty as a fellow at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. The symposium will provide a wealth of speakers who will engage students in the challenges of the community with the wisdom and strength that Stokes displayed.

"If anyone in this country fits the ideals of this symposium, it is John Lewis," says Joseph White, the Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy at CWRU. White will moderate the question-and-answer period following the talk, as well as a session of short responses from members of the CWRU community.

Born the son of Alabama sharecroppers, Lewis rose from his humble beginnings to become an educated hero in the civil rights movement. He participated in the Freedom Rides to challenge segregation at bus terminals, led the "Bloody Sunday" march from Selma to Montgomery, and had his skull broken in the nonviolent protest. From 1963-66, he chaired the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and organized sit-ins and protests. He was one of the planners of the March on Washington in 1963. As director of the Voting Education Project, Lewis oversaw some four million new voters added to the voting registers.

Lewis came to Washington in 1977 when President Jimmy Carter appointed him director of ACTION, the federal volunteer agency for Volunteers in Service to America and the Peace Corps. In 1981 Lewis was elected to the Atlanta City Council, and in 1986 to the U.S. Congress.

Now in his eighth term, Lewis is one of the highest-ranking blacks in Congress as the chief deputy Democratic whip and a member of the Ways and Means Committee, where he serves on the Subcommittee on Health and the Subcommittee on Oversight.

Lewis has earned numerous awards and honorary degrees in recognition of his community activism and service. He is the author of Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (1998), which chronicles his civil rights work. The New York Times designated it as a notable book, and the Los Angeles Times named it book of the year.