America lost a courageous pioneer of the civil rights movement who repeatedly risked his life to fight against racism and for justice and equality with the death Friday of Rep. John Lewis. Lewis was also a master legislator in Congress and a visionary who changed the course of history for the better, and a man I was blessed to have met many times.
Lewis was brutally beaten, unjustly jailed and almost killed in the struggle to end segregation in the Jim Crow South and win the right to vote for Black Americans. He literally shed his blood to give African Americans in my generation opportunities he never had growing up. We all owe him a personal debt of gratitude we can never repay.
It was my honor to have known John Lewis. On the many occasions I met him, and always shook his hand or embraced him, I was humbled by his sacrifice and the continuing fight he waged for a more perfect union. He greeted everyone in the halls of Congress and at civic events with a smile. He was never too busy to take a picture. And he always had time to hug you.
US REP. JOHN LEWIS, CIVIL RIGHTS ICON, DEAD AT 80
From humble beginnings in Troy, Miss., on a farm with no electricity or indoor plumbing, Lewis blazed a trail for all fighters for human rights to follow, and for all Americans to strive toward. He was a role model not just for Black Americans but for good people the world over who reject hatred and bigotry, and who believe that we are indeed all created equal.
Known fondly as “the conscience of Congress,” Lewis always believed that America's best days were ahead and not in the past. That was why he put his body on the line for civil rights and the right to vote. He remained nonviolent, even though he was beaten over 40 times and arrested 24 times in the struggle for equal justice.
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Lewis was mighty in his convictions. Deep in his heart, he believed that every American should have the right to vote, understanding that this was the only way to get politicians to support the just and noble cause of equality.
Lewis knew the right to vote was the lynchpin to our democracy, and shouldn't be obstructed by long lines, poll taxes, or any other stumbling block. This belief was a touchstone of Lewis's life.
And this belief kept him fighting with every ounce of his strength until his final day, when pancreatic cancer claimed his life at age 80. He understood that despite the tremendous progress Black Americans have made, the truth is that far too many Americans still experience voter suppression in their quest to cast their ballots and record their voice in this democracy.
Lewis almost lost his life in the struggle for voting rights in March 1965. As a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), he was part of a multiyear campaign to deliver the right to vote to African Americans in Alabama and throughout the United States.
As Lewis and a group of committed, unarmed and nonviolent civil rights activists began their first march from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama they were met on the Edmund Pettus Bridge by a wall of Alabama state troopers. Seconds later, the troopers began shoving Lewis and fellow protesters, tossing many to the ground, beating them brutally with billy clubs wrapped in barbed wire.
Lewis suffered a broken skull in the unprovoked police attack. Knocked to the ground, Lewis tried to get up, only to have the trooper viscously club him again.
John Lewis stands out in American history as a leader and role model for us all to emulate.
Police also fired tear gas at the peaceful demonstrators and some officers even charged the crowd on horseback. This horrifying event became known as Bloody Sunday and shocked the conscience of the nation when TV newscasts broadcast the racist attack. Just eight days later, President Lyndon Johnson presented the Voting Rights Act to Congress and he signed it into law in August after it was passed by both houses.
Lewis spent a good chunk of his professional life protecting the Voting Rights Act while he served in the House, representing Georgia since his first election as a Democrat in 1986.
He was known for fiery floor speeches and brilliant legislative tactics to protect the right to vote on Capitol Hill.
Regrettably, in 2013 a Supreme Court ruling gutted two critical provisions in the Voting Rights Act. That led Lewis to wage a new campaign to protect voting rights, inspiring a new generation of civil rights activists.
Whether it be the egregious voter suppression that took place in Georgia's gubernatorial race in 2018, or the continued attempts by Republicans to close polling places in predominantly Black communities, John Lewis was in the struggle. You could always count on him to stand up for the disenfranchised, the victims of discrimination, and those pushed aside. He was always ready to create what he called “good trouble.”
In an op-ed written after that Supreme Court ruling that weakened the Voting Rights Act, Lewis said that "the right to vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in a democracy. I risked my life defending that right. Some died in the struggle. If we are ever to actualize the true meaning of equality, effective measures such as the Voting Rights Act are still a necessary requirement of democracy."
Lewis loved America, so much so that he risked his life to make it a better place. And as he goes on to heaven, he does so when his beloved democracy is in chaos.
Not only has COVID-19 laid bare many of health care inequities that Lewis fought to change. The deaths of so many unarmed Black people at the hands of police and reemergence of outright voter suppression against Black communities shows that the evil of racism has not been eradicated.
After watching the brutal murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on Memorial Day, Lewis told the “CBS Morning News”: “It was so painful, it made me cry.” And he added: “People now understand what the struggle was all about.”
Lewis believed sincerely that Black Lives Matter and his entire life was steeped in that truth. At just 23 he was the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and spent every day afterward working to make the ideals of that march a reality.
If not for John Lewis' activism, I doubt that my own Jamaican family would have made it to America's shores. If not for Lewis' quiet bravery, I probably wouldn't be a Fox News commentator and might not even be allowed to vote. He changed America for the better in more ways than we can count.
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John Lewis stands out in American history as a leader and role model for us all to emulate. He was a true believer in the “liberty and justice for all” that we say we believe in when we recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
And while Lewis is sadly no longer with us, we must embody his legacy and use it as a tool to make America a better, stronger and more equitable society.
We must begin to see the legacy of John Lewis in the Black Lives Matter nonviolent protesters, putting their bodies on the line to affirm the value of Black lives in the face of an unbalanced and out-of-whack criminal justice system.
We must see the legacy of John Lewis in the halls of Congress, and fight to pass the new version of the Voting Rights Act so no American will ever have to wait in a long line or be subjected to Jim Crow-like voter suppression tactics.
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And most importantly, we must see the legacy of John Lewis in neighbors and community members and understand we all deserve equality, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, no matter our creed, color or citizenship status.
Lewis was a true believer in the power of love. Now he rests with angels, where there is no more pain or suffering. My prayer is that we, as a nation, will live up to the high expectations set by John Lewis' life, work and legacy. We were all blessed to have had him on this Earth for 80 years, and we are now all poorer with him no longer able to fight the righteous fight to make America a more just nation.
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