For many people, a heroic figure is the athlete who hits the game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning or scores the winning touchdown with seconds left in the game.

Miah Pierce’s hero, however, neither hit a home run in Major League Baseball nor ran a decisive touchdown in the NFL. Instead, he’s a man who was arrested more than 40 times.

“He is hope, he is love, he is kind and he is my hero — for he is all of these because of the hardships he went through,” Pierce, 20, of Campbell, said.

The Youngstown State University senior and social work major was referring to the late civil rights icon and Georgia congressman John Lewis, whose commitment to exemplifying a life led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s six principles of nonviolence has left an indelible imprint on her in many ways.

While practicing those principles — which often meant engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience and social action to protest an injustice — Lewis was arrested for the first time in February 1960, when he was Pierce’s age. Over the years, Lewis faced dozens more arrests for what he coined “getting into good trouble, necessary trouble” in fighting against racism and segregation and for equality.

The latest embodiment of his influence on Pierce’s life came Tuesday, when she traveled to Columbus to accept the National Association of Secretaries of State John Lewis Youth Leadership Award for the state of Ohio. Handing her the honor was Secretary of State Frank LaRose.

The award, launched in February 2021, honors Lewis’s lifetime achievements in government and civil rights. It is given by the 50 secretaries of state to recognize one gifted and highly civic-minded person in each state who displays outstanding leadership abilities, has a strong passion for civil rights and social justice and is committed to improving life in the community.

Pierce was the sole winner for Ohio.

Those eligible must be 25 or younger, show a meaningful commitment toward addressing civil rights issues such as voting rights, and work to facilitate positive changes in their communities that include advocacy and leadership in a specific program or project, according to the National Association of Secretaries of State’s website. Eligibility also can include literature; Lewis won a National Book Award for young people’s literature.

SOJOURNER

Pierce’s work includes having twice participated in the weeklong Sojourn to the Past bus journey to key civil rights sites in the South, as well as taking part in local voter registration efforts.

In addition, her activism has entailed helping to research and write Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past’s “Anti-Racism Workshop: Be a Difference Maker” and presenting it on many occasions to many groups, planning to erect a bench in Glenwood Community Park to recognize and honor those whose lives were taken by violence, reading to middle school students during the COVID-19 pandemic, being part of Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past’s annual Nonviolence Parade and Rally in early October, taking part in a spoken word presentation on behalf of those in Youngstown who have been murdered, developing and presenting self-esteem and anti-bullying programs to a Taft Elementary School girls’ mentoring group and speaking to Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School students.

To further bolster her career and life’s ambitions, Pierce recently began an internship in which she works 15 to 20 hours per week at the Boys & Girls Club of Youngstown. Specifically, she mentors 12- to 14-year-old girls to help them feel more empowered and “to manage themselves,” Pierce said, noting that her career goal is to work in the city school system.

Before taking home her prestigious award, Pierce made a video for the secretary of state’s office in which she’s shown sitting on the bench in Glenwood Community Park. In it, she expounds on several of Lewis’s key accomplishments that include having co-led the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march for voting rights.

“I spoke for John Lewis, who fought for me before I knew who he was. It was an honor to meet him and shake his hand” while on the Sojourn to the Past trip, Pierce added.

MODESTY

Despite her own achievements at her young age, Pierce, who also works for Victoria Secret at the Southern Park Mall in Boardman, expressed a touch of modesty — preferring to defer most of the credit to her hero and mentor.

“I have a hard time expounding on my work, because I do it for others who want to learn about the civil rights movement,” she said.

Nevertheless, the YSU senior and Youngstown Early College graduate is always prepared, motivated and enthusiastic about participating in area community-improvement projects and social-activism efforts, said Penny Wells, Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past’s executive director, who nominated Pierce for the award.

“I felt she would be the perfect one to nominate,” Wells said. “I just know I can count on her.”