{"id":9589,"date":"2026-03-09T20:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/?p=9589"},"modified":"2026-03-11T15:45:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T15:45:26","slug":"lewis-family-feature-a-legacy-still-standing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2026\/03\/09\/lewis-family-feature-a-legacy-still-standing\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Family Feature: A legacy still standing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">TROY, Ala. (<a href=\"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TROJANVISION<\/a>) \u2014 Black History Month is a time of reflection and remembrance of those who paved a way for African Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many of those individuals came from humble beginnings in places such as Troy. Renowned civil rights activist and <a href=\"https:\/\/civilrightstrail.com\/experience\/rep-john-lewis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">U.S Congressman John Robert Lewis<\/a> was one of those individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;He was always reading, studying trying to figure out what he could do to make things better,&#8221; said Harris&#8217; brother, Henry. &#8220;When he was growing up, he did not like a lot of the signs that he saw, colored or white.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The brothers of the late congressman reflected on their childhood in rural Pike County and recalled their own experiences with Jim Crow in the Deep South.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We would go to the scales after picking cotton and weigh our sacks,&#8221; Harris&#8217; brother Samuel told TrojanVision. &#8220;You would think that you had about 50 pounds of cotton picked, but somehow they always said that you had 40.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2026\/03\/02\/troy-students-walk-in-annual-unity-walk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Troy students participate in annual Unity Walk<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Henry and Samuel mentioned that although they were very supportive and proud of their brother John, events like Bloody Sunday caused Lewis&#8217; siblings and parents to fear for the congressman&#8217;s safety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I could see the fear in my parents eyes when they watched that,&#8221; Henry said. &#8220;That really terrified me because I knew they were afraid not only of what happened, but what could happen in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Henry and Samuel took a moment to reflect on some of their very last moments with their brother before his passing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;My brother Freddie that just passed away, he told my brother, John, when he was on laying on his death bed, &#8216;John, I wish I could changed places with you.&#8217; John replied, &#8216;No, ,I have lived my life. You just live yours.'&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the years, Henry and Samuel have been able to retrace the steps of their brother, alongside several other notable figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Henry and Samuel are the last two living brothers of Civil Rights Activist and U.S Congressman John Robert Lewis. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) \u2014 Black History Month is a time of reflection and remembrance of those who paved a way for African Americans.<\/p>\n<p>Many of those individuals came from humble beginnings in places such as Troy. Renowned civil rights activist and U.S Congressman John Robert Lewis was one of those individuals.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He was always reading,&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"a-button\" href=\"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2026\/03\/09\/lewis-family-feature-a-legacy-still-standing\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":9618,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1125],"tags":[],"topics":[1123],"class_list":["post-9589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","topics-state-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9589"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9648,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9589\/revisions\/9648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9589"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=9589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}