Today, as John Lewis (1940-2020) body is laid to rest in Georgia, we commemorate the sacrifices he made to the United States in demanding equal civil rights to all Americans regardless of skin color. He was an organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, led the Selma to Montgomery marches (later known as Bloody Sunday), and was one of the original Freedom Riders back in 1961. He was later elected to Congress in 1986, where he has remained a representative of Georgia’s 5th District until his death on July 17. He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.
“Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life, I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.”
John Lewis, in an opinion he wrote in the New York Times published after his death.
Born to sharecroppers in Troy, Alabama, in 1940, John Lewis dealt with the injustice of racial segregation from a young age. Especially when he visited Northern cities like New York, he began to become aware of the deeply unequal racial segregation system in the South. He was greatly disappointed in finding out that Brown v. Board of Education would have little impact on his school life, and became aware of Martin Luther King Jr. when he was just 15, and followed the Montgomery Bus Boycott closely. He met Rosa Parks at 17 and King at 18.
In 1957, when he left home to attend a seminary in Nashville, he learned about the form of nonviolent protest and organized the Nashville sit-in movement, which eventually desegregated all lunch counters in downtown Nashville. He was arrested and jailed many times in his fight to desegregate downtown, but he never gave up his fight
“Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”
John Lewis
In 1961, he became one of the 13 original Freedom Riders (we briefly talk about this in our post about the Civil Rights Movement here). They were a group of seven whites and six Blacks who rode a bus from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans to protest segregation laws on mass transit. He was arrested, assaulted, and beat up numerous times throughout this.
In 1963, he became chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, becoming one of the “Big Six” leaders of the movement and helping to plan the March on Washington. This event is where Martin Luther King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
Even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law, it was still exceedingly difficult for Southern Blacks to vote. Because of this, he led a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, on March 7, 1965. After crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, state troopers attacked the marchers, resulting in Lewis’ skull becoming fractured. The event became known as “Bloody Sunday,” and the brutal, violent attacks helped accelerate the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Lewis was elected to represent Georgia’s 5th Congressional District in 1986 and was reelected 16 times until his death in 2020. He has consistently won over 70 percent of the vote (except once in 1994). A member of the Democratic Party, he has consistently led progressive views. He opposed the Gulf War in 1991 and the 2000 U.S.-China trade agreement, opposed the Clinton administration on NAFTA and welfare reform, and opposed armed intervention, such as in the Iraq War. He protested strongly against the election of George W. Bush and Donald Trump, nor did he attend their inauguration ceremonies. President Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award, in 2011
He became diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer in 2019 and passed away on July 17, 2020, aged 80, after a six-month battle with the disease. He became the first Black American to be honored in the Capitol Rotunda. Later, his casket was brought across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and to Troy University, which had denied him admission in the ’50s for being Black.
Though John Lewis has now left us, his legacy still remains. The sacrifices he made to the United States and the Civil Rights Movement will remain forever. He became the last living speaker at the March on Washington and the last of the “Big Six” to pass away.
It is the responsibility of our generation to ensure that John Lewis’ work was not done in vain. We must continue to strive for racial equality and the equal treatment of all persons.
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