Rep. John Lewis hopes to deliver a message of "hope and optimism'' to the Progressive Labour Party tonight.

As guest speaker at the Opposition's 27th annual conference banquet at Marriott's Castle Harbour Resort, he will also speak about his experiences as a leading US civil rights activist and building "The Beloved Community''.

Mr. Lewis is known as one of the "Big Six'' leaders of the American civil rights movement.

"No matter whether you live in Atlanta, New York, California, Bermuda, Eastern Europe, even Africa, we're all in this thing together,'' he said.

"Don't hide from racism -- deal with it.'' Commenting on last week's US elections in which the Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives and the Senate for the first time in 40 years, Mr. Lewis said: "The American people spoke with a mighty voice. But many of us were surprised, left almost in a state of disbelief, that my party lost so many seats in the House and Senate.'' Mr. Lewis, who won 69 percent of the vote in his district, said if anything was to blame it was poor voter turnout.

"Too many stayed home,'' he said. He also felt the "young'' President Clinton was not being given a fair chance. "He's had to fix so much from the Reagan/Bush years.'' A recent issue of the US National Journal named Mr. Lewis, also an environmental activist, as "one of the 11 rising stars in Congress''.

Under his leadership of the Voter Education Project, he added nearly 4 million minorities to the voter rolls.

In Congress, Mr. Lewis is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Committee on the District of Columbia and co-chairman of the Congressional Urban Caucus.

Rep. John Lewis