The Minority Caucus of the Metropolitan Nashville City Council and a group of community leaders support an ordinance to rename Fifth Avenue in memory of the late civil rights pioneer and U.S. Representative John Lewis – Rep. John Lewis Way.
 
Rep. Lewis began his lifelong crusade for civil rights and civic justice in Nashville while a student at Fisk University and the American Baptist Theological Seminary. He was a leader in the historic lunch counter sit-ins that lead to Nashville becoming the first Southern city to start the desegregation of public places. In 1961, he represented the Nashville group of the burgeoning civil rights movement as one of the 13 original “Freedom Riders.” Later, Lewis would embark on a career in public service, first as an Atlanta City Council member, then as a Congressman representing Georgia’s Fifth District.
 
Fifth Avenue would become Rep. John Lewis Way from the intersection of Fifth Avenue North and Coffee Street in Salemtown through Germantown, into downtown and end at the intersection of Fifth and Oak Street at the Nashville City Cemetery.
 
Lewis once said, “I believe that you see something that you want to get done, you cannot give up, and you cannot give in.” Working together, we can get this done.