Chelsea Fuller (BSJ, 2011) was twelve years old when she met civil rights icon John Lewis at Paschal’s restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia, the unofficial headquarters of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Fuller had been traveling with her mother, Marjorie, and a group of students from Knox College to landmarks throughout the south to learn about and celebrate Black history in America.
“Representative Lewis spoke individually to every person in the room,” Fuller said. “I was a budding writer who loved my people, my history and my culture. He told me ‘there's nothing more powerful than telling stories and there's nothing more powerful than loving and being committed to your people.’”