John Lewis: An Appreciation
Rob Horowitz, MINDSETTER™
John Lewis: An Appreciation
“I appeal to all of you to get into this great revolution that is sweeping this nation. Get in and stay in the streets of every city, every village and hamlet of this nation until true freedom comes, until the revolution of 1776 is complete, remarked a 23-year old John Lewis as he gave one of the keynote speeches at the 1963 March on Washington.
In the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial that day, John Lewis challenged the nation to realize its founding ideals of equality of opportunity for all. More importantly, by his courageous actions of answering hate, racism, and violence with principled non-violence, love, and an abiding faith that he could make his fellow citizens see injustice and act to fix it, John Lewis brought us a great distance closer to living up to the promise of America.
Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis left his small, segregated Alabama farm community, joining the fledgling Civil Rights movement when he was still a teenager. Becoming a key King lieutenant as well as a major leader in his own right., Lewis provided a powerful example, repeatedly risking life and limb to perform acts of disciplined and creative non-violence--acts that brought to American living rooms the cruel, vicious and unequal treatment of blacks under Jim Crow--creating the fertile political soil that resulted in the adoption of the landmark Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 respectively.
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In Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965, John Lewis headed-up a march for voting rights-- a day we now commemorate each year as Bloody Sunday. “Lewis led a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge straight into a blockade set up by Alabama state troopers. The first nightstick came down on Lewis’s skull. The troopers used whips, horses, a hose wrapped in barbed wire. Along with Lewis, ninety demonstrators were injured,” wrote David Remnick. The contrast of the disciplined non-violence of the protesters in the face of vicious violent attacks from the state troopers aroused the conscience of the nation, propelling the Voting Rights Act to passage soon thereafter.
Following his time as a civil rights activist, Lewis pursued the more conventional political course now open to him and other African-Americans from the South due to the changes brought about by the success of the civil rights movement to which he was central. He was first elected to the Atlanta City Council and then in 1986 won a seat in the House of Representatives, where he was still serving until he passed away several days ago at the age of 80. As a member of Congress, he was a leader on voting rights legislation and acquired the well-earned and nearly universally acknowledged title of “Conscience of the Congress”
In our time of national mourning, Presidents Bush and Obama underscored John Lewis’s contribution to the nation, describing it in remarkably similar terms:
President Bush issued the following statement: ”Laura and I join our fellow Americans in mourning the loss of Congressman John Lewis. As a young man marching for equality in Selma, Alabama, John answered brutal violence with courageous hope. And throughout his career as a civil rights leader and public servant, he worked to make our country a more perfect union. America can best honor John's memory by continuing his journey toward liberty and justice for all"
President Obama wrote, “In so many ways, John’s life was exceptional. But he never believed that what he did was more than any citizen of this country might do. He believed that in all of us, there exists the capacity for great courage, a longing to do what’s right, a willingness to love all people, and to extend to them their God-given rights to dignity and respect. And it’s because he saw the best in all of us that he will continue, even in his passing, to serve as a beacon in that long journey towards a more perfect union.”
John Lewis was a true patriot who in the words of Lincoln appealed to the “better angels of our nature.” He led a life of purpose--one that immeasurably benefited the nation that he loved.
