John Lewis, congressman from Georgia who has been a leader in the Civil Rights Movement for more than three decades, will speak at Cornell University's annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration Thursday, Feb. 3, at 4:30 p.m. in Sage Chapel.

Cornell President Hunter Rawlings will introduce Lewis at the event, which is free and open to the public. The Cornell gospel choir How Excellent will sing.

Copies of Lewis' book, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, which received the Robert F. Kennedy Book award in 1999, will be available.

Lewis was described as "one of the most able and respected members of Congress" when he was awarded the 1999 Franklin D. Roosevelt Freedom Medal last year.

Since his youth, he has been a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, organizing sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in Tennessee in the early 1960s. He participated in the Freedom Rides despite beatings by mobs. He helped organize the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and was a keynote speaker at the 1963 March on Washington organized by King. He marched with King between Selma and Montgomery, Ala., in 1965. He later directed the Voter Education Project that added 4 million minority citizens to the voter rolls.

Elected to Congress in 1986, Lewis represents Georgia's fifth congressional district; he is in his seventh term. He serves as Chief Deputy Democratic Whip and on the influential Democratic Steering Committee. He is a co-chair of the Congressional Urban Caucus, the Congressional Caucus on Anti-Semitism and the Congressional Committee to Support Writers and Journalists, and is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

The son of Alabama sharecroppers, Lewis attended segregated public schools in Pike County, Ala. He is a graduate of Fisk University and the American Baptist Theological Seminary.

Cornell's annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration is sponsored by Cornell United Religious Work.