In March 1961, his senior year at ABT, Lewis heard about the Freedom Rides being planned for that summer and decided to join up. The Supreme Court had recently ruled in Boynton v. Virginia that having segregated facilities at interstate bus stations was illegal. (A previous decision had already outlawed segregation in interstate bus travel—at least in theory.) The Freedom Rides, sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), would put Boynton v. Virginia to the test.

Participants met in Washington, DC, the first week in May for training and left on the first leg May 4, planning to ride all the way to New Orleans. Everything went smoothly until May 9, when they reached Rock Hill, South Carolina. There, Lewis and his seatmate Albert Bigelow were assaulted and beaten when they tried to enter the white area of the bus station. The same day, he received a telegram from the American Friends Service Committee, where he’d applied to do mission work abroad. They asked him to come for an interview, so he left to fly to Philadelphia. He accepted an offer to go to India and then flew to Nashville to spend a night there and attend church the next morning with friends.