THE DEATH OF A CIVIL RIGHTS ICON
LISA’S LINES 18 JULY 2020
THE DEATH OF A CIVIL RIGHTS ICON
When I heard the news of the death of Civil Rights Icon and Congressman John Lewis, quite frankly, I wept. I cried for the loss of a father to his family, of a friend to those who were close to him, but mostly I cried for our country. This incredible human being did so much to advance not just the Civil Rights movement, but the “Human” movement. His death, at this time in particular, is devastating.
John Robert Lewis was born the 21st of February 1940 in Troy, Alabama, the third of ten children born to Willie Mae and Eddie Lewis, who were sharecroppers. The young Lewis had very little or no interaction with white people, and had only seen two by the age of six. When he started taking trips into town with his family, he experienced racism and segregation from others, in particularly at the public library. However, he came to realize on his visits up North to Buffalo, New York, to see other family that there were such things as integrated schools, buses, and businesses, which disturbed him about Troy’s segregation policies.
Lewis was swept up into the civil rights movement from a young age. He first heard Martin Luther King, Jr. speak on the radio when he was 15, and then followed Dr. King’ s Montgomery bus boycott later that year. When he was 17 he met Rosa Parks, and met Dr. King for the first time when he was just 18.
Congressman Lewis started to make his mark in civil rights while he was a student in Nashville, Tennessee, graduating from the American Baptist Theological Seminary, and later receiving a bachelor’s degree in religion and philosophy from Fisk University. As a student he organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, and was a member of the Nashville Student Movement. He organized bus boycotts, nonviolent protests for voter and racial equality. Lewis was arrested numerous times in the nonviolent movement to desegregate the downtown city area. Lewis’s adherence to the discipline and philosophy of nonviolence was one that he would continue to practice for the rest of his life.
In 1961 at the age of 21 Lewis became one of the 13 original Freedom Riders, who were comprised of seven whites and six blacks who were determined to ride from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans as an integrated group. Lewis and his fellow nonviolent Freedom Riders were beaten by angry mobs, arrested and taken to jail on numerous occasions. The violence that Lewis and the other Freedom Fighters encountered was so horrific, that in Birmingham, they were beaten with baseball bats, chains, lead pipes, and stones. In Montgomery, there was even more violence, and Lewis was hit in the head with a wooden crate. He said of the incident, “It was very violent. I thought I was going to die. I was left lying at the Greyhound bus station in Montgomery unconscious.
In 1963 Lewis at the age of 23, was elected Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, of which he was an original member. He pressed on with his work for freedom, and was named one of the “Big Six” leaders who organized the March on Washington, which was the occasion of Dr. Martin Luther King’s historic “I Have A Dream” speech, along with Whitney Young, A. Philip Randolph, James Farmer, and Roy Wilkins. Lewis was the youngest speaker that memorable day, and at the time of his death was the last remaining living speaker.
Lewis went on toe coordinate the SNCC’s efforts for “Mississippi Freedom Summer,” in 1964 when a campaign was started to register black voters across the South. Lewis’ national prominence grew in 1965 during the Selma to Montgomery marches when what would be known as “Bloody Sunday” occurred on the 7th of March 1965. Lewis and his fellow activists led over 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. The Alabama State Troopers met them at the end of the bridge and ordered them to disperse. When the marchers stopped to pray, the police tear gassed them and mounted troopers beat the demonstrators with night sticks. Lewis’ skull was fractured during the melee, but he was able to escape across the bridge to Brown Chapel, a church in Selma that also served as the movement’s headquarters. Lewis would have the scars on his from this incident for the rest of his life.
John Lewis attempted his first run at Congress in 1977 after Andrew Young stepped down from Georgia’s 5th congressional district to become the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. under President Jimmy Carter. Lewis, unfortunately, lost his first bid for Congress, but accepted a position with the Carter Administration as associate director of ACTION, which ran the VISTA program for Retired Senior Volunteers, and the Foster Grandparent program. He held this job for 2 ? years before resigning in 1980, for his next run at office. In 1981 he won the at-large seat on the Atlanta City Council, and served until 1986. In November of 1986 Lewis ran once again for the 5th district, and this time he won his Congressional seat, and never looked back. He was even reelected 16 times and served from 1988 until his death.
Congressman Lewis was categorized as a “Hard-Core Liberal. He characterized himself as a strong and adamant liberal. Never one to back down, he laid his beliefs out on the table. He spoke out in support of gay rights and national health insurance. He opposed sending troops in the Gulf War in 1991. He opposed the Clinton administration on NAFTA and welfare reform and was outraged when it passed, “Where is the sense of decency? What does it profit a great nation to conquer the world, only to lose its soul?” He was opposed to many things President George W. Bush did, even suggesting he should be impeached. However, three days after the September 11 attacks in 2001, he voted to give the President authority to use force against the perpetrators of 9/11.
Lewis continued to be involved in the Civil Rights Movement as part of his politics. He made an annual pilgrimage to Alabama to retrace the route he marched in 1965 from Selma to Montgomery. It became part of the Historic National Trails program, and became one of the most sought after tickets in Washington among the lawmakers. Both Republican and Democrats alike were eager to be part of this movement with Lewis. The Congressman continued to wield his political influence when in the 2008 Presidential Election, he originally supported Hillary Clinton, only to withdraw his support and cast his superdelegate vote for Barack Obama. When Obama clinched the Democratic nomination for President, Lewis said, “If someone had told me this would be happening now, I would have told them they were crazy, out of their mind, they didn’t know what they were talking about…I just wish the others were around to see this day.”
Lewis received a multitude of honors during his life, but perhaps the two greatest were the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation in 2001 awarded Lewis the Profile in Courage Award “for his extraordinary courage, leadership and commitment to civil rights.” This is a lifetime achievement award that has only been given out twice – to John Lewis and then William Winter in 2008. The other incredible honor for Congressman Lewis came in 2011, when he was awarded the President Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.
Lewis a man of peace and non-violence was never a pushover. He was very outspoken, especially when it came to injustices and wrongdoings. He was very disturbed by the election of President Donald J. Trump. In 2017 during an interview he said, “I don’t see the president-elect as a legitimate president.” He added, “I think the Russians participated in having this man get elected, and they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. I don’t plan to attend the Inauguration.” He was even more upset by Trump’s immigration policies, “We need to build bridges not walls,” he said. And he expressed his outrage of the children in cages, “Immigrant babies shouldn’t be used as political weapons!”
Even after he announced on the 29th of December 2019 that he had been diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer, Lewis still wanted to make a difference. He remained in the Washington, D.C. area for his treatment. He stated at the time, “I have been in some kind of fight – for freedom, equality, basic human rights – for nearly my entire life. I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now.” And fight he did, even on the 4th of June, a month and a half before his death, he spoke about the death of George Floyd. He wept, “we need to heal.” He was so proud to see people from all over the country, and the world stand up and recognize how wrong this was, “We all matter. No matter the color. No matter the ethnicity. No matter it be man or woman, gay or straight. We are all one family. One world family. We all are from the same house.”
And now we weep as a nation. As a collective soul grieving this giant in the history of Civil Rights. Always outspoken. Never mean. Everything was from love. Sleep gentle our non-violent warrior, and trust that your words, your wisdom, and your work will live on.