ASSOCIATED PRESS Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) speaks near the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 2015, in Selma, Alabama, the weekend marking the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," a civil rights march in which protesters were beaten, trampled and tear-gassed by police at the bridge.

Need a compelling reminder that you should exercise your right to vote? Let Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) tell you.

The civil rights organizer was a driving force behind voter registration efforts in the South in the early 1960s, a dangerous act at the time. In 1965, Lewis led a group of 600 nonviolent protesters across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama; state troopers responded by beating him in the head with a night stick.

Lewis recalled that harrowing experience ― and many others like it ― in a tweet on Monday, urging his followers to “vote like you’ve never voted before.”

I have been beaten, my skull fractured, and arrested more than forty times so that each and every person has the right to register and vote. Friends of my gave their lives. Do your part. Get out there and vote like you’ve never voted before. #vote #goodtrouble — John Lewis (@repjohnlewis) October 22, 2018

Lewis’ passion for voting rights hasn’t wavered since he entered Congress, where he’s called voting an “almost sacred” act and “the most powerful, non-violent tool we have in a democratic society.”

For more on how to register to vote, research candidates, confirm your registration, get an absentee ballot and more, visit USA.gov’s voting and elections page here.