Born in the Augusta area before the outbreak of the Civil War, Lyons taught himself to read and write and would graduate from Howard Law School.
In November 1884, he was admitted to the state bar, becoming Georgia’s first African American lawyer.
President William McKinley named him registrar of the Treasury, making him at the time the highest-ranking black man in the federal government.
Back in Georgia, he founded one of the state’s first civil rights organizations: the Georgia Equal Rights Association.
He also served as president of the board of trustees at Haines Normal and Industrial Institute, a school for black students that would become Lucy C. Laney High School.
