The Hon. Rufus A. Lewis
1906 - 1999
Lewis began an earnest voting rights drive in the early 1940s. Credited with registering 4 generations of Montgomery voters. He established Citizenship School that tutored prospective black voters to fill out the literacy text. A barrier before the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Lewis opened, in 1952 the "Citizens' Club,” a night club for African Americans who were registered voters and who helped others to become voters. Lewis was a graduate of Fisk University and served as football coach at Alabama State University. In 1958, he became a partner in the Ross-Clayton Funeral Home business. He was one of the founders and first Montgomery Chapter president of the Alabama Democratic Conference, the oldest continuing black political organization in the state. Lewis was elected to the Alabama state legislature in 1974, but resigned in 1976 when U.S. President Jimmy Carter appointed him to serve as a U.S. Marshal. The first black marshal for the Middle District in Alabama.
Marker is on Rufus A. Lewis Lane.
Courtesy hmdb.org
