--- title: The Story Behind TIME's Commemorative John Lewis Cover description: "In this picture, you see he's looking forward with an enormous amount of strength," says photographer Steve Schapiro, who met Lewis in 1963 canonical: https://time.com/5869243/john-lewis-cover/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-07-21T18:44:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T17:43:04.000Z article:section: History og:title: The Story Behind TIME's John Lewis Cover og:description: Photographer Steve Schapiro met John Lewis just weeks before the March on Washington og:url: https://time.com/5869243/john-lewis-cover/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt101c1c716dc3936c/698a107e86f68efe2b6ef02d/Final.John_.Lewis_.Cover3_.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: John Lewis Time Magazine Cover 200803 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Story Behind TIME's John Lewis Cover twitter:description: Photographer Steve Schapiro met John Lewis just weeks before the March on Washington twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt101c1c716dc3936c/698a107e86f68efe2b6ef02d/Final.John_.Lewis_.Cover3_.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'It's a Picture of Someone Who Knows Who He Is.' The Story Behind TIME's Commemorative John Lewis Cover  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Updated: Dec 12, 2023 5:43 PM UTCPublished: Jul 21, 2020 6:44 PM UTC  Steve Schapiro—Getty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Updated: Dec 12, 2023 5:43 PM UTCPublished: Jul 21, 2020 6:44 PM UTC In 1963, Steve Schapiro, then 28, was on assignment for LIFE magazine, photographing prominent civil rights activists, from [James Baldwin](https://time.com/5475998/if-beale-street-could-talk-james-baldwin-bio-history/) to [Fannie Lou Hamer](https://time.com/5692775/fannie-lou-hamer/). One day, while following Jerome Smith, a participant in the Freedom Rides that raised awareness of interstate bus segregation, he went to Clarksdale, Miss., to document one of the many training sessions that were taking place in church basements across the South. In those meetings, volunteers studied how to react to the racism they would encounter in their work. That day in Clarksdale, as Schapiro watched a line of ministers file into the church, he noticed among the group another well-known [Freedom Rider, ](http://civilrightsmuseum.org/from-the-vault/posts/john-lewis-freedom-rider)in a tie and button-down shirt: John Lewis. He asked Lewis if he could take his photo, and the young man agreed. Weeks later, Lewis would become the youngest person on the speakers’ slate at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, addressing some 250,000 people from the Lincoln Memorial as the chairperson of the student arm of the 1960s civil rights movement, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Lewis, then 23, went on to represent Atlanta in Congress for three decades until July 17, when he [died](https://time.com/5697668/john-lewis-dies/) at the age of 80 after a battle with cancer. The picture Schapiro shot more than half a century ago is featured on the cover of the Aug. 3-10 issue of TIME, which dives into Lewis’s life, career and legacy. “You can feel the determination in him to be who he is,” Schapiro tells TIME, reflecting on the photograph. “In this picture, you see he’s looking forward with an enormous amount of strength, in terms of how he sees the future. It’s a picture of someone who knows who he is, knows what he has to do, and for the rest of his life, after this picture, he did it.” After that moment, Schapiro kept following the civil rights movement, too. He would go on to cover the March on Washington and voter registration efforts throughout the South. He covered the march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., photographing [Martin Luther King, Jr.](https://time.com/equality/), Ralph Abernathy, [Andrew Young](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1871648%5F1871684%5F1871653,00.html) and [Rosa Parks](https://time.com/5786220/claudette-colvin-mary-louise-smith/). LIFE also sent him to Memphis to cover the aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination on April 4, 1968\. In recent years, Schapiro, now 85 and living in Chicago, has covered the Black Lives Matter movement. [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter-history) Schapiro says Lewis saw the photo in 2014, after the Monroe Gallery [exhibited it,](http://www.monroegallery.com/showcase/55) and Schapiro sent Lewis a signed copy. Then, in 2015, Schapiro saw the Congressman in person for the first time since 1963\. As the nation marked the 50th anniversary of the march from Selma to Montgomery, the two saw each other at different events where veterans of the 1960s civil rights movement gathered. Lewis told Schapiro that 1963 image was one of his favorite photos of himself; Schapiro says that earlier this year, aides to Lewis reached out to him requesting a version of the photo for a belated birthday party for the Congressman. Schapiro hopes the TIME cover will inspire young people to pick up Lewis’ lifelong fight for racial equality and human rights. “This is who he was in his time,” the photographer says. “Let’s see who you are in your time.” [_Buy a print of TIME’s commemorative John Lewis cover._](https://timecoverstore.com/featured/rep-john-lewis-1940-2020-steve-schapiro-getty-images.html?product=art-print) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5869243/john-lewis-cover/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5869243/john-lewis-cover/"},"headline":"'It's a Picture of Someone Who Knows Who He Is.' The Story Behind TIME's Commemorative John Lewis Cover","datePublished":"2020-07-21T18:44:23.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T17:43:04.000Z","description":"Photographer Steve Schapiro met John Lewis just weeks before the March on Washington","url":"https://time.com/5869243/john-lewis-cover/","keywords":["Civil Rights"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt101c1c716dc3936c/698a107e86f68efe2b6ef02d/Final.John_.Lewis_.Cover3_.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt101c1c716dc3936c/698a107e86f68efe2b6ef02d/Final.John_.Lewis_.Cover3_.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"John Lewis Time Magazine Cover 200803","caption":"John Lewis Time Magazine Cover","creditText":"Steve Schapiro—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/civil-rights/","name":"Civil Rights"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5869243/john-lewis-cover/","name":"'It's a Picture of Someone Who Knows Who He Is.' The Story Behind TIME's Commemorative John Lewis Cover"}}]}] ```