User:Alozo Freedman/sandbox

Lewis Conway Jr; (April 1, 1970 – ) spent 2,095 days in Texas prisons and 4,012 days on parole and is a Criminal Justice Organizer with Grassroots Leadership a not-for-profit organization that works for a more just society where prison profiteering, mass incarceration, deportation and criminalization are things of the past and Texas Advocates for Justice. He was born in Abilene, Texas, as Doonie and moved to Austin in 1975, attending local schools.

He changed his name in 1992 prior to his confinement.

Early life and education
He was born in Abilene, Texas, as Lewis Conway Jr, the youngest of three children of Lewis Conway, from Calvert, Texas, and Dorothy Faye, from Calvert. His Grandfather was sentenced to a life sentence in 1932. [[Texas]. Lewis went to public schools in Austin, Texas. He attended grade school at Maplewood and Andrews Elementary schools on the East side of Austin, Texas. He attended Junior High School at Pearce Junior High, where he would discover his love for music and sports. He would later attend high school at John. H. Reagan High School.

At 17, during his Junior year in High School he dropped out of high school and enrolled as a Freshman at Huston-Tillotson College. His parents were both active in the communities and churches of District 1. His father, Lewis Conway, Sr., was a Pastor in St. John’s and in several A.M.E. churches in District 1. Together, with his mother, Dorothy Conway, his father owned a number of businesses on the East Side of Austin. This is where Lewis was given the opportunity to learn the power of entrepreneurship. His parents were both college educated civil rights activists, with a strong moral inclination towards social justice.

Later life and incarceration
Prior to his leadership and organizing efforts, Lewis was convicted of Voluntary Manslaughter in 1992, He spent 2,095 days in Texas prisons, with 4,012 days on parole.

Political career
As an organizer, activist and an advocate, Lewis led the legislative lobbying effort to protect the Austin Fair Chance Hiring ordinance. Lewis has served on many successful campaigns: the repeal of the Austin juvenile curfew ordinance, delaying the new $97 million jail expansion and also leading a prison closure campaign which contributed to the closing of 3 private correctional facilities and 1 public prison in 2017. In 2016, Lewis was the Political Director of the Second Chance Democrats and helped pass the only Fair Chance Hiring ordinance in the South. He went on to lead the effort to protect the Austin ordinance, from preemption in 2017, at the Texas State Legislature.

In 2017, Lewis was nominated for the Austin Young Chamber Changemaker award and accepted into the highly competitive leadership cohort of JustLeadership Cohort and Leadership Austin. In 2018, Lewis became the first formerly incarcerated person in Texas to run for pubic office, according the Secretary of the State of Texas.