Civil rights icon and Georgia’s 5th district U.S. Congressman John Lewis will deliver the 33rd commencement address for Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) at 9:00 a.m. on May 20, 2017, at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel on the campus of Morehouse College. Lewis will receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters and MSM will confer 116 graduate degrees to 112 students — four students receiving dual degrees.

In addition to his service representing Georgia’s 5th district since 1987, Lewis is most known for leading the march on “Bloody Sunday,” where he and more than 600 other protesters attempted to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965. The march for voting rights was met with a brutal confrontation by Alabama State Troopers. Lewis has been given several awards and distinctions, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Profile of Courage Award for Lifetime Achievement granted by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.

“We value Rep. John Lewis’ continued friendship and partnership in vision of health equity for all,” explains MSM President and Dean Valerie Montgomery Rice, M.D. “His sacrifices of the past have paved the way for this generation of our students. We are honored by his presence as we present the next generation of health and science leaders.”