JOHN LEWIS: IN MEMORIAM

THE MAN AND THE MISSION

Civil rights icon Georgia Congressman John Lewis died July 17, 2020. Tributes flowed in from across the political spectrum and cable news networks devoted hours of coverage to his life and times. We each have different views of Lewis and his accomplishments, indeed of his significance in contemporary America. Today we share those views individually:

Henry: A Man Who Made the World a Better Place

Time and place determine much about how

we evaluate any person. Human beings live a linear existence. One event follows another. At times we have trouble linking the success of the later action or event with what preceded it. In baseball, for example, I believe the starter or the middle reliever is as important to the victory as the closer who finishes the game and secures the win. In some people, we have been fortunate to have those who demonstrated “persistence of the

spirt” so we can credit them with making a difference. We honor figures all along that timeline who bend the curve toward justice in different ways and for different reasons.

In John Lewis, we had a man who deserves honoring for many reasons. He made a

difference in different ways. Quantitative or objective facts, significant though they are, tell only part of the story with a man like John Lewis. He was the conscience, the gadfly, the man who, in his own lexicon, made “good trouble.”  He got up after being knocked down time after time. He never stopped fighting the good fight for justice and he always did it with love. He symbolized hope for a nation. His advocacy for justice through nonviolent confrontation reminded us of our highest ideals and that we must always act to advance them.

John Lewis, from all we can tell, acted justly, loved mercy, walked humbly with his God, and made the world a better place than he found it when he arrived 80 years ago. What else can we ask of any mortal being?

Rob: A Record for the Ages

Bill Parcells won Super Bowls and coached his way into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He had a saying: “You are what your record says you are.” John Lewis had a record that says if they had a hall of fame for freedom fighters, he’d have been inducted a long time ago. Just think about some of the things John Lewis did with his life:

·    started civil rights work at age 17;

·    as head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), at age 23

was the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington;

·    led the March 7, 1965, march on the Edmund Pettus Bridge that resulted in

Bloody Sunday at which he was beaten by police, leaving him with a fractured skull. The events of that day directly led to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a law that added half a million black voters to the rolls in the South within a year, 10 million more by 1980, and the election of four hundred black elected officials within three years;

·    thirty-four years in Congress where he led countless fights on voting rights, civil rights, gun control, and health care.

John Lewis was sometimes called the “the conscience of U.S. Congress.” He may have been and that’s another reason to honor him and mourn his death. In the final analysis, though, John Lewis deserved the accolades because of what he did. Period. 

Woodson: Is there no room for disagreement?

Was John Lewis’ life significant? I posed that question to my children on July 18^th.  Two accused me of being factious, insensitive, and even garish. My intention was to encourage analysis of Lewis’ tactics, strategies and results, not to be facetious, insensitive or garish.

Failure to examine our leaders’ decisions is problematic, especially if their goals are economic, political and social parity for African Americans. 

Lewis nearly lost his life on Bloody Sunday, marching for the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Today, the Act stands stripped of significant provisions and voter suppression of African Americans is pervasive. 

 Hospitalized for fractured skull, John Lewis

Lewis spoke at the March on Washington in 1963 about the injustice of African American economic inequality. The economic condition of African Americans remains stagnant. Lewis demanded laws to prevent police excesses against African Americans. Police excesses continue. Twice Lewis backed Obama’s efforts to become President. Today the White House is occupied by a misogynistic white supremacist. 
 

The speech that Lewis gave that day was not his original version. Conservatives in the civil rights movement persuaded Lewis to edit his speech.

Lewis’ original speech contained the following:

“In good conscience, we cannot support wholeheartedly the administration’s civil rights bill… it is too little… too late.”

“This nation is still a place of cheap political leaders who build their careers on immoral compromises.”

“We will not wait for the courts to act… for the President, the Justice Department, nor Congress, but we will take matters into our own hands and create a source of power, outside of any national structure.”

“To those who have said, ‘Be patient and wait,’ we must say that ‘patience’ is a dirty and nasty word.”

“We will march through the South, through the heart of Dixie, the way Sherman did.”

              
                                                            Click on image to hear John Lewis speech. Video courtesy of YouTube.

Lewis chose compromise? Did his compromise change the trajectory of his leadership? On compromise,  Malcolm X said that if a man has a knife 9 inches into

your back and pulls it back 3, the knife is still 6 inches into your back.  Was Lewis or Malcolm right?  We will not know the answers unless we are free to ask the questions.