; Whereas, in 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Mr. Lewis to direct more than 250,000 volunteers of ACTION, which was then a Federal volunteer agency; Whereas, in 1981, Mr. Lewis won elected office for the first time as an at-large Councilman on the Atlanta City Council, where he was a powerful advocate for ethics and neighborhood preservation, including saving from destruction the historic neighborhoods of the Old Fourth Ward, Inman Park, Candler Park, and Druid Hills; Whereas, in 1982, Mr. Lewis worked with the American Jewish Committee to found the Atlanta Black-Jewish Coalition, part of his decades-long friendship and alliance with the Jewish community of Georgia, which later led to the establishment of the Congressional Black-Jewish caucus; Whereas, in 1986, Mr. Lewis became the second African American to represent Georgia in Congress since Reconstruction; Whereas Mr. Lewis fought for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 ( Public Law 102–166 ; 105 Stat. 1071), which was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush; Whereas, in 2001, Mr. Lewis was awarded the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation Profile in Courage Award for his extraordinary courage, leadership and commitment to civil rights ; Whereas Mr. Lewis led the effort to build what is now known as the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center, one of the largest Federal buildings in the United States; Whereas, in 2003, Mr. Lewis secured authorization for construction of the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington, DC; Whereas, in 2007, Mr. Lewis introduced the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007 ( 28 U.S.C. 509 note; Public Law 110–344 ) to investigate unsolved civil rights crimes, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2008; Whereas, in 2011, President Barack Obama awarded Mr. Lewis the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States