“If you’re not hopeful and optimistic, then you just give up. You have to take the long hard look and just believe that if you’re consistent, you will succeed.” John Lewis is a member of the U.S House of Representatives representing Georgia’s 5th district. He is the only living “big six” leader of the Black Civil Rights movement which consisted of Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, John Lewis, A. Phillip Randolph, Roy Wilkins and Whitney Young. I admire John Lewis’ courage in the civil rights movement as he was leading the SNCC movement through the freedom rides, specifically when he encouraged the SNCC students that were dropped off in Klan territory to keep going and afterwards stating “we had a mandate, a moral obligation” (Lewis, 151). John Lewis had a great impact on the conception of the American Dream by making it achievable for all races in his...