In 2008, Lewis earned a grant to retrace the steps of Mahatma Gandhi’s infamous 1930 Salt March: a nonviolent protest to the salt tax , which had provided a British monopoly resulting in extreme pricing of salt to colonial Indians, who were prohibited to manufacture salt on their own. Gandhi, who started with 80 followers called "satyagrahis", or “truth-force,” walked 241 miles from his home (the Harijan Ashram) to the coastal city of Dandi, where Gandhi picked up some grains of salt, thereby sparking the civil disobedience movement which eventually led to India's independence. According to an article in Pulse (a Cincinnati newspaper which has since gone out of print), Lewis ran the heritage trail in 10 days, averaging just over 20 miles per day. Gandhi completed the walk in 25 days. Prior to the trip, Lewis emailed the president of the Harijan Ashram (now a museum honoring Gandhi) to explain his intentions. When Lewis and his two companions, who accompanied him on bicycle, arrived, they were the subject of unanticipated media attention and ceremony. Lewis was given a Hindu sendoff, blessing the challenge he planned to endure, featuring gifts of necklaces, rice and a dot on his forehead. Lewis cites hot temperatures, high humidity and pollution among the challenging features of the historic run. However, the friendly people – many of whom offered them water, and their homes – and the followers who joined them along the way, including one woman whose father had walked with Gandhi in 1930, made for a powerful experience. Lewis explained to a reporter from the Times of India he was grateful for the reminder about the significance of nonviolence . In 2009, Lewis retraced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic Selma to Montgomery march which was attempted on three different occasions in March 1965. King and his followers were finally able to commence the nonviolent march on March 21, accompanied by nearly 4,000 U.S. Army and Alabama National Guard soldiers under federal orders from President Johnson. They covered the 54-mile route over a span of five days. While the first march started with 600 people, nearly 25,000 followers convened in Montgomery as King delivered a speech in front of the Alabama State Capitol building, followed by a petition for black Americans to exercise their constitutional right to vote . A National Historic Trail, the route along U.S. Route 80, known as the Jefferson Davis Highway, is memorialized as the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights Trail.