He held this post until 1960, when he retired and was then named president emeritus. He was elected president of the UMWA in 1920. President Hayes appointed Lewis vice president, but due to president Hayes' alcoholism, Lewis assumed Hayes' duties in 1919, by becoming acting president. White resigned as president of the UMW, and vice president Frank J. In five years, Lewis was the UMWA convention's pro-tem president and appointed chief statistician for the union. He took a national position in the American Federation of Labor (AFL), as an organizer, in 1911. The following year he would be elected as an Illinois representative on UMW's state legislature. In 1909, he would serve, successively, as president of the Panama local of the United Mine Workers of America, and later as a lobbyist for the UMW. Lewis was voted to be a local delegate to the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) convention in 1906, which marked the beginning of Lewis' quick rise as a leader of laborers. Between the years 18, Lewis also tried farming, construction work, and a small business, before joining the labor movement, in 1907. He became a coal miner at the age of 15 after settling in Panama, Illinois, a small town in the central part of the state. John Llewellyn Lewis was born February 12, 1880, in Cleveland, Iowa, the son of a Welsh immigrant coal miner.
He was also a giant among American leaders in the first half of the 20th century, regularly advising presidents and challenging America's corporate leaders. Lewis was a powerful labor leader, who through the Congress of Industrial Organizations(CIO), helped raise living standards for millions of American families in the 1930s.
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