During the early 40s, Lewis set up schools and clinics to teach community members, especially veterans, to fill out the required literacy test to become a registered voter. In 1949 Lewis was hired to lead a program created by the Montgomery School Board in an agreement with the Veterans Administration that offered job training classes for black veterans. In 1952 Lewis founded the Citizens Club, a social club aimed to assist the black community with matters of voter registration. In 1954 Lewis worked with Jo Ann Robinson and E. D. Nixon to organize the Citizen Coordinating Committee to advance efforts in civic consciousness and get people registered to vote. He was a member of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and a founding member of the Montgomery Improvement Association which organized the Montgomery bus boycott. He served on the organization's executive committee and was chairman of the transportation committee and the voter registration committee. At the organization's first meeting, Lewis nominated Martin Luther King Jr. as president. Lewis’ early work as a civil rights activist lead to a successful political career later in life. In 1960 he co-founded the Alabama Democratic Conference (ADC). Lewis was the first president of the Montgomery County Democratic Conference, 2nd Congressional District of the Democratic Conference. He was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Montgomery Community Action Committee. He later attended the official signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 at the White House. In 1976, he was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives. In 1977 President Jimmy Carter appointed Lewis to become the first Black U.S. Marshal of the Middle District of Alabama. He worked in this role until 1981. In 1994, one of Montgomery's libraries was renamed Rufus A. Lewis Regional Library in his honor. The street that he and his wife lived on for many years was also changed from Bolivar Lane to Rufus A. Lewis Lane.