As the country moves toward an historic moment with the nomination of an African-American presidential candidate, an earlier icon of the civil rights saga is trying to make sure he isn't relegated to the history books just yet.

Congressman John Lewis had a busy Saturday this weekend doing something he hasn't had to do very often in his recent years of service: campaigning for re-nomination. Representing the fifth district of Georgia, centered on the city of Atlanta, Rep. Lewis has not faced primary opposition in the last three elections. This year, he faces two Democratic challengers: a young minister named Markel Hutchins, and state Representative "Able" Mable Thomas.

"My colleagues in Washington cannot believe I have opposition," Rep. Lewis told a crowd of supporters at a fundraiser Saturday -- his fifth of six campaign stops of the day. "They say, 'Oh, you're crazy, you're lying to us, you don't have opposition, people are not going to run against you.'" Rep. Lewis has been serving the fifth district since his first election to Congress in 1986.

"I started very early today...in jeans, sneakers, and I had a hammer in my hand, and I was using it in a most non-violent way," he said to the chuckling audience. His quip about his hammer reminded those present of his early years in the civil rights movement, including leadership of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Lewis and his colleagues were not then met with non-violence themselves, of course; when he and Rev. Hosea Williams led a march in Selma, AL, toward Montgomery in 1965, their crowd of hundreds was brutally turned back by police wielding billy clubs, tear gas, and attack dogs.

At a young age, Rep. Lewis was part of making history as a key organizer of and speaker at the 1963 march on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. His current position in Congress of Senior Chief Deputy Whip of the Democrats gives him a remarkable perspective on where that history was made, and where history may be made again, as he described the view from his Whip office in the Capitol to the gathering.

"You can walk up to the window and look right down the center of the Mall. And past the Washington Monument, you can see the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where we stood forty-five years ago with Dr. King when he gave that 'I Have a Dream' speech. I was the youngest speaker. I spoke number six, Dr. King spoke number ten. And out of the ten people that spoke that day, I'm the only one still around."

In that sense, Rep. Lewis stands in Congress and in his district in Georgia like a bookend on one shelf of history, holding up one end of the progress in civil rights our country has made in the last 45 years. He hopes to remain in Congress when another historical moment occurs as another bookend -- though it would not be the last shelf of the story of our societal evolution.

"On January the 20th, when the next president, a Democratic president, takes the oath of office, we'll be able to stand in that window and look right down and see the new president take the oath of office. And when our Democratic nominee, Mr. Obama, accepts the Democratic nomination in Denver, he will be accepting it on August 28th, the same day that Dr. King gave the 'I Have a Dream' speech. Something is happening, there's a movement in history. And each and every one of us will be bearing witness to history. This can only happen in America."

The Young Democrats of Atlanta recognized the importance of Rep. Lewis's historical legacy and its connection to this year's momentous election season when they asked the civil rights leader to provide a recorded video address for their annual fundraiser, "The Future is Blue," on May 12. The theme for this year's event: "Passing the Torch: Connecting the Young Democrats of 1968 to the Young Democrats of 2008." In his remarks to the Young Dems, he advised them to "take lessons from the life of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. They must be prepared to do what I call, get in the way. Not to be quiet, not to be silent, but be prepared to stand up, speak up, and speak out."

It is a safe bet around these parts to assume that John Lewis will indeed be looking down the Mall from his office in 2009, standing up and speaking out. But his challengers, who are borrowing heavily from the "change" theme of the Obama campaign (and framing this as a generational challenge even though Thomas is 50), are going to make him work harder for it this year.