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:
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?
Was John Lewis’ life significant? I
posed that question to my children on July 18th. 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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
Click on image to hear John Lewis speech. Video courtesy of YouTube.
