; and (2) whose example deepened Mr. Lewis’ ambition to become a minister; Whereas, inspired by Dr. King, Mr. Lewis, on February 16, 1956, 5 days before his 16th birthday, preached his first public sermon, entitled A Praying Mother , at Macedonia Baptist Church in Troy, Alabama, which came from the First Book of Samuel and discussed the example of Hannah, mother of Samuel, which sermon made such an impact that it was published in the Montgomery Advertiser newspaper; Whereas, on February 18, 1956, 2 days after Mr. Lewis gave his first public sermon, a relative of Mr. Lewis, Thomas Brewer of Columbus, Georgia, a voting rights activist working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (referred to in this preamble as the NAACP ), was shot to death by a White man who was never indicted for the murder; Whereas Mr. Lewis joined the NAACP in the summer of 1956; Whereas, in 1958, Mr. Lewis wrote a letter to Dr. King, who responded with a round trip bus ticket for Mr. Lewis to visit Montgomery, Alabama, where Mr. Lewis and Dr. King met at Reverend Ralph David Abernathy’s First Baptist Church; Whereas, while a student at the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee, Mr. Lewis— (1) was a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (referred to in this preamble as the SNCC ); and (2) organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters, pushing Nashville to become the first major city in the South to begin the desegregation of public facilities; Whereas Mr. Lewis graduated from the American Baptist Theological Seminary in 1961, and was subsequently ordained as a Baptist minister; Whereas, in 1961, Mr. Lewis became one of the 13 original Freedom Riders, who challenged segregated interstate travel throughout the South; Whereas, at just 23 years old, Mr. Lewis helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, at which— (1) Dr. King gave his famous I Have a Dream speech