Lewis, 11-Term Congressman and Civil Rights Leader, Still Appears on No-Fly List

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) has had to go through security searches and provide multiple forms of identification at airport checkpoints for years because his name appears on federal no-fly lists.

Lewis, a leader in the civil rights movement before becoming an 11-term congressman, sent a letter to House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) this week asking him to address the issue.

In addition to suffering travel delays, Lewis has his staff alert his airline before every flight, Lewis wrote.
“I am on this list; I have been trying to get off for years,” he wrote. “And it seems there is not any way for me to get off. I have done nothing wrong and have complied with every request. If I encounter these problems as a Member of Congress showing my congressional identification, drivers’ license, and a clearance letter from [Transportation Security Administration], you can only imagine what the average American suffers.”

Download the letter here.