"We were beaten; we were left bloody, but we didn’t give up! There are forces in America today that want to take us back to another period. But we are not going back, we are going forward. So it doesn’t matter whether we are black or white, Latino, Asian American or Native American. It doesn’t matter if we’re straight or gay. We are one people; we are one family; we are one house. We all live in the same house: the American house, the world house. And we must look after each other…maybe our foremothers and forefathers came to this land in different ships, but we’re all in the same boat now."

His words reverberating in the morning air, voters were excited to march to the Fulton County Government Center in Atlanta on October 17^th, the start of the early voting period. John Lewis stood at the forefront of the procession, his “I Will Vote” banner in hand, with millennials, proudly taking advantage of their constitutional right, following suit.

Atlanta's “Millennial March” celebrated the bold, historic fight for voting rights in America, particularly Lewis's orchestration of the momentous march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery. Serving as a major turning point in the Civil Rights Movement, the infamous “Bloody Sunday” occurred on March 7, 1965 before their protest could even leave Selma. After moving fifty feet, a state trooper stood up and announced on a bullhorn “This march shall not continue.” As he, then the Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, recalled in his testimony, the trooper announced “'I will give you two minutes to leave'” but “after about a minute or more, Major Cloud ordered his troopers to advance…and they moved up with their clubs up over their – near their shoulder…they came rushing in, knocking us down and pushing us.” Lewis was hit twice with a billy club and suffered from a skull fracture, and over 50 marchers were hospitalized. News reports of this blatant cruelty and segregation is attributed to have significantly influenced the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 six months later.

One of the last remaining leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, his activism followed him into his seat in the House of Representatives. In the wake of the Pulse nightclub shootings in Orlando, he led a 24-hour sit in in the halls of Congress to push a bill aimed at regulating gun acquisition. Fascinated by his transition from an activist working to change the government from the outside, to a seasoned political insider as the Chief Deputy Whip for the Democratic party in the House, I questioned him on his “anti-establishment”- “establishment” ideals:

You once said that “You have a mandate to get out and disturb the order of things.” But since we were born, we’ve always been told to follow the rules, and we’re rewarded for doing so in institutions like school. How does one find a balance; how did you find a balance?

"Well if you see something going on that you don’t like, then you have a moral obligation to disturb it, to change it. That’s what we did with the sit-ins in 1960, following in the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr., Thoreau with Civil Disobedience, and Gandhi with passive resistance. That’s what we did when we had to sit in on the House floor a few months ago concerning gun violence; we did it in an orderly, peaceful nonviolent fashion."

Many of his achievements, from directing the Voter Education Project, to winning the Atlanta mayoral election, to representing a Blue district in the midst of a southern Red state, can be credited to one key character trait. As he talks about his most recent sit in, he uses the words “had to.” He did not make his decisions because he had some free time. His core set of values are more than just his guiding compass; they are his duty, his obligation, and his mission.

Lives lost in the Movement demonstrate the importance of your voting power. African Americans have only been able to vote for 51 years. To modify Louis C.K.'s words, that means American democracy is only 51 years old. Voting isn't a right, but rather, a hard-earned privilege. After inquiring from him the exact moment he knew he wanted to join the Civil Rights Movement, he answered simply “I didn’t like what I saw…I made up my mind then. I may get arrested; I may go to jail; I may be beaten, but I’m going to do it.”

Following his passion unabashedly, I’m awed by his steel will in comparison to my (and many other millennials’) wishy-washy interests. Nevertheless, Lewis’s hardships further underscore the point of this “Millennial March.” More than merely another Clinton sponsored campaign event, this is a reminder to us of hundreds and thousands of Americans’ long unrequited desire, millions of Americans’ apathy towards a privilege, and a few individual’s actions that changed everything.

Early voting extends from October 17^th to November 4^th. Election day is on November 8^th. You have the facts now. Will you vote? (Think: WWJLD?)