MUG SHOTS: Politics

John Lewis

Congressman John Lewis posed for the above Jackson, Mississippi police mug shot following his May 1961 arrest for using a “white” restroom. The Georgia Democrat, 21 at the time, traveled to Mississippi as a Freedom Rider challenging segregation and Jim Crow laws. According to Lewis, he spent more than a month in custody at a state prison farm before his release.

The bottom photo was taken in February 1962 after Lewis was arrested for breach of peace during a protest in Nashville, Tennessee.