R
Respect
For neighbors, history, and the work itself.
Who We Honor
Honoring the Legacy of John Robert Lewis.
Named in honor of the civil rights icon John Robert Lewis, our organization is built on his principles of justice, peace, and progress.
Biography
The boy from Troy.
John Robert Lewis was born February 21, 1940, outside Troy, Alabama — the third of ten children of sharecroppers. Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he became a Freedom Rider, chaired the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and led the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on Bloody Sunday, 1965.
He served seventeen terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He died July 17, 2020.
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Expanded biography — content to be added by the JRL BDP team.
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Archival photography — image rights and curation in progress.
Mission
A movement radiating from Selma.
The John Robert Lewis Black Belt Development Process advances opportunities to live and thrive — revitalizing communities, promoting enduring economic growth, and improving the well-being of youth, adults, and families across Selma and surrounding areas.
Vision
Dignity and determination.
A Black Belt where every neighbor has the resources, agency, and infrastructure to thrive — economically, civically, and culturally.
Read the Process frameworkREACH Values
Respect · Excellence · Accountability · Compassion · Honor
E
Excellence
In every program, partnership, and product.
A
Accountability
To the people we serve and to one another.
C
Compassion
As a daily discipline, not a slogan.
H
Honor
Of those who walked before, and those still to come.
Civil Rights Legacy
Good trouble, necessary trouble.
From sit-ins in Nashville to the March on Washington, John Lewis was arrested more than forty times in the cause of civil rights. He bore the scars of Selma for the rest of his life — carrying them, he said, as a witness.
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Detailed legacy timeline and historical milestones to be added.
Why This Work
Why Selma. Why now.
The Black Belt region of Alabama remains one of the most economically challenged and historically significant regions in America. Our work answers Lewis's call by investing where it is needed most.
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Regional impact stories and partner highlights to be added.
In His Words
"When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something."
— John Lewis