In 1940, John Lewis was born the son of sharecroppers in rural Alabama. As a youth, he experienced the harsh realities of segregation and racism – forced to sit apart from white children and unable to share the same privileges they did. Today, Lewis is a leader in Congress and recently witnessed the swearing-in of Barack Obama, the first American-American president of the United States. The story of John Lewis is that of the struggle to transform the world of his youth to create the vastly expanded opportunities available today.