In 1986, Lewis was selected to be a member of a delegation of Black female politicians who traveled to China as representatives of the United States.
Lewis and her teammates were forced to sprint to their already running pickup to escape the wrath of the white patrons.
As a child, she worked in the fields picking cotton in Marion, Arkansas, where she witnessed a white farmer publicly murder one of her friends from school without facing repercussions.
Her schoolteacher, also from Marion, was tied to a tree and burned to death for teaching black children to read.
She met with George W. Bush in 2002, who stated "I had the honor of listening to a local elected official, Ms. Fannie Lewis, who had some things to say."