John Lewis, civil rights leaders speak at site of Nashville sit-ins

December 6, 2017 at 1:00 a.m. | Updated December 6, 2017 at 2:41 a.m.

by The Tennessean , Adam Tamburin

The Rev. Kelly Miller Smith, right, president of Nashville Christian Leadership Council and John Lewis, chairman of the Student Non-violence Committee of the NCLC, told a mass meeting of demonstrators May 10, 1963 at Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Jefferson St., not to protest in town until the outcome of the meeting between Nashville business officials and black leaders. (Photo: Jack Corn/The Tennessean)
The Rev. Kelly Miller Smith, right, president of Nashville Christian Leadership Council and John Lewis, chairman of the Student Non-violence Committee of the NCLC, told a mass meeting of demonstrators May 10, 1963 at Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Jefferson St., not to protest in town until the outcome of the meeting between Nashville business officials and black leaders. (Photo: Jack Corn/The Tennessean)

Participants in the sit-ins that desegregated Nashville lunch counters in 1960 returned to the site of the protests Monday to celebrate their history and urge a new generation to carry the tenets of the civil rights movement forward.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, one of the most recognizable faces of the movement, headlined the event organized by Lipscomb University's Fred D. Gray Institute for Law, Justice & Society. Some of the city's top leaders, including Mayor Megan Barry, were said to be on hand while Lewis and others described a through line that connects the lessons of the 1960s to the challenges of 2017.

Lewis, speaking over a live video feed from his Washington, D.C., office, trumpeted the progress made against racism, saying the American South had been improved by the "non-violent revolution" of the civil rights movement.

Read more at our news partner's website, tennessean.com.

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