US Rep. John Lewis chosen to speak at NY college graduation
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. (AP) - U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a longtime civil rights activist, has been chosen as the keynote speaker for the commencement ceremony at Bard College in New York's Hudson Valley.
Officials at the private liberal arts school say the Georgia Democrat will receive an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law from the college during the May 27 ceremony.
The 77-year-old Lewis was elected to Congress in 1986.
He made headlines last month when he challenged Donald Trump's legitimacy to be president, and then skipped the Republican's inauguration.
Lewis got involved in the civil rights movement in the 1950s while he was a student at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. He was a Freedom Rider in the early 1960s and a keynote speaker at the historic March on Washington in August 1963.