Abbott Brant

Poughkeepsie Journal

U.S. Representative John Lewis, D-Georgia, will deliver Bard College’s class of 2017 commencement address, according to a statement from the college.

Lewis, civil rights pioneer and senior chief deputy whip for the House’s Democratic Party, will speak to the 435 undergraduate students and 141 graduate students who receive their diploma May 27 in Annandale during the college’s 157th commencement ceremony.

During the ceremony, Lewis will receive an honorary doctorate of civil law. Honorary degrees will also be awarded to classicist Mary Beard, computer scientist Erik D. Demaine, West Point Dean and Brigadier General Cindy R. Jebb, artist Brice Marden, mathematician Karen Saxe, and philanthropist Charles P. Stevenson Jr.

Lewis was elected to Congress in November 1986 and has served as U.S. Representative of Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District since that time.

During his time at Fisk University in Nashville, Lewis organized sit-ins and participated in the Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation at interstate bus terminals across the South. Lewis also helped lead more than 600 peaceful protesters across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in a march to Montgomery that ended in violence, known as “Bloody Sunday.” The event helped pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Lewis is the recipient of many national awards, including the Medal of Freedom, Lincoln Medal from the historic Ford’s Theatre, the National Education Association Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Award, and the John F. Kennedy “Profile in Courage” Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Abbott Brant: abrant@poughkeepsiejournal.com, 845-437-4809, Twitter: @AbbottBrantPoJo