DECATUR - U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., couldn't pass by Decatur without speaking to the Boys & Girls Club.

Talking to a crowd of more than 50 children and adults Saturday, he touched on living through segregation, meeting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks and his childhood that would spur his becoming a civil rights activist.

"When I was very, very young, I saw discrimination, and I didn't like it," he said to the audience. "I got involved with the civil rights movement, and it changed my life."

Lewis was in Central Illinois to be keynote speaker at the Freedom Fund Banquet later that evening at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel and Conference Center in Springfield.

He had asked fellow U.S. Rep. Phil Hare, D-Rock Island, to arrange his visit to the Boys & Girls Club.

Just as Lewis was inspired by Parks and King growing up, he hopes he can do the same for this generation.

"I love to get out and meet the young people and try to say a few words to inspire them," he said. "They see some ordinary person just like them can succeed, and I hope that was part of the message they got."

Lewis was greeted in the parking lot by a performance from the Decatur Power Drillers, as he strolled around shaking children's hands and asking them how they were doing.

Boys & Girls Club Executive Director Walt Smith was pleased to have Lewis speak to the organization and hopes it can become an ongoing experience.

"I think children need visualization," he said. "It gives them a broad understanding that they're not in this fight by themselves."

Lewis of Atlanta is the last person living of the Big Six leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, which included King, Whitney Young, A. Phillip Randolph, James Farmer and Roy Wilkins, and is one of the original Freedom Riders.

The son of a sharecropper in Troy, Ala., Lewis has served as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and was elected to Congress in 1986, from Georgia's 5th Congressional District, a position he holds today.

Gary Hall and Briana Crawford, two teens with the Boys & Girls Club, weren't aware of Lewis' life before his visit to the club.

"He marched with Martin Luther King Jr.; that's pretty cool," Hall said.

"It's amazing that he's one of the six people that were with Martin Luther King Jr., and he's here," Crawford added.

All eyes and ears tuned in to him, Lewis left his young audience with encouraging words.

"I say to you, learn as much as you can in school, and you must never ever give up. Hold on to your dreams. You can be what you want to be," he said, referring U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate. "Hang in there, OK? Keep the faith, and don't give up."

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