Sunday, August 2, 2020

JOHN LEWIS: IN HIS OWN WORDS



 
Thursday concluded the memorial services for Congressman John Lewis who died on 17 July 2020 due to pancreatic cancer.

First, the obligatory fuck cancer remark

And second, I had something written but it did not do him justice. We throw around the word legend, but he was one and we were honored to be in his presence for the 80 years he was on this Earth.

This is a small sample of the numerous speeches that Lewis gave, but if someone was to ask me who was John Lewis, I would show them some of these videos to give a glimpse of who he was. 

 I highly recommend that you read the graphic novel that he authored along with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell. In November 2016, Lewis and his fellow collaborators received an award for March: Book 3. Upon taking the stage, he was overcome with emotion because when he and his brothers, sisters, and cousins were children they were denied a library card due to the color of their skin.

When Lewis returned to the Pike County, AL public library for a book signing event for Walking With the Wind in July 1998, the library corrected this injustice when they gave him a card.


Lewis’ memorial services touched on several key points in his life. It began with a memorial service at Troy University in his hometown in Alabama. Lewis had hoped to attend the university in 1957 but due to the policies of the Jim Crow South, his application was ignored. It wasn’t until 1989 when Troy honored him with a parade on “John Lewis Day”, and the university presented him with one of many honorary degrees that he would receive throughout his life.

It was followed by one last journey across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma and lying in state at the capitol in Birmingham.



In Washington, DC, Lewis’ body was taken by the MLK Memorial where he was at its dedication ceremony in October 2011.


The hearse then drove past the Lincoln Memorial where he spoke at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Justice.


It should be noted that the speech he gave was not the one he originally wrote. When Philip Hannan, the archbishop of Washington, DC, received a copy of the first speech, he perceived it to be too inflammatory. Due to this pressure, Martin Luther King Jr, A. Phillip Randolph, and other march organizers made changes up to the moment when Lewis was about to take to the microphone.

He took one past journey by the National Museum of African American History and Culture where in 1988 he filed the first bill for its creation. In 2016, Lewis – in the presence of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama – delivered remarks at its dedication ceremony.


 The hearse traveled down Black Lives Matter Plaza where he made his final public appearance



 I had a hard time choosing which picture to pick because I do like the one with him holding a cane as it shows that Lewis got to do what many people like King tragically never got the chance to do: grow old.

He lied in state at the US Capitol where his fellow congress members got to say goodbye. Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden paid their respects.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi introduced a special guest to his funeral.


 His final stop was in Atlanta where he was a member of the city council beginning in 1981 and represented Georgia’s fifth congressional district since 1987.



The last election he won was the primary and most likely would have won re-election in the general election given the political lean of the district. His replacement is for the November ballot is State Senator Nikima Williams and once she enters Congress in January 2021 will have a difficult task to replace this legend, but Lewis paved the way for many black legislators and I am rooting for her to carry on his work.

And you can bet that Lewis would be doing everything he can to Get Out the Vote for the 2020 election.

Especially in Georgia


 Lewis was back to the front lines on voting rights after the 2010 elections where Republicans in several states placed restrictions on voting and the 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder that gutted provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As of now, the House has passed a bill to restore those provisions but it is currently collecting dust on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s desk.

I highly encourage everyone to take the time to watch Lewis’ Atlanta funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church, the same one where Martin Luther King Jr. preached. There are a lot of good speeches in them such as how he met his wife, what was it like to work in the congressman’s office, and how he was Uncle Robert to his family.


Three former presidents – Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton – eulogized Lewis. Jimmy Carter was not in attendance due to COVID-19 and his advanced age but had written remarks read by Reverend Raphael Warnock. Under normal circumstances, Carter and his wife certainly have been in attendance due to Lewis’ work in the former president’s administration as well as being a fellow Georgian. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi shared some history and presented the flag that flew over the capitol the night that Lewis passed.

Despite being 91 years old, Reverend James Lawson brought the house down as well as serving a reminder that not too many of these people from that era of the fight for civil rights are left alive. Occurring hours before Lewis’ passing was the passing of Reverend CT Vivian. Take the time to learn about him too and Reverend Lawson.

Not attending any of the memorial services was the current president, Donald Trump who made his feelings towards Lewis saying that he was all talk and no action after Lewis said that he was not attending Trump’s inaugural due to Russian interference in the 2016 election. Lewis also boycotted George W. Bush’s 2001 inaugural due to the controversial results from the deciding state of Florida in 2000.

Upon hearing the news of Lewis’ passing, Trump said he was not going to pay his respects.

It would have been better if Trump had just kept his mouth shut because we already knew he wasn’t going to attend. It would interfere with more pressing matters, like his golfing, tweeting, and banning TikTok.

And it was fitting that Obama attended Lewis’ funeral based on remarks the congressman made minutes after Obama won in November 2008


Barack Obama – an actual president – awarded John Lewis with the Congressional Medal of Freedom in February 2011 due to his lifetime commitment to civil rights.


Here is also a clip from the Obama Foundation where Obama and Lewis participated in a video conference call that discusses on how racism impacts people of color from the mental health perspective


It should be noted that Lewis was consistent when the field for civil rights expanded.

In 1996 when the House was debating the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Lewis gave a speech from the floor of the US House against the bill. You can hear that preacher’s spirit in his words.


LGBTQ Twitter historian Lisa Talmadge recalls the night her and fellow LGBTQ rights activists who held a vigil for the murdered Matthew Shepard in 1998 when Congressman Lewis showed up with words of encouragement in a dark time.


Here is Lewis echoing the same sentiments in a Freedom to Marry video


And here he is pushing for the Equality Act to pass Congress as recent as May 2019


Supporting marriage rights for same-sex couples and other LGBTQ rights were not popular positions in the 1990s and did not receive majority support until the late 2000s. But Lewis was proven to be correct when the Byrd-Shepard Expanded Hate Crimes Act – which he voted for – became law in 2009, DOMA was overturned in 2013, followed by same-sex marriages recognized in 2015, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protecting LGBTQ persons as per a June 2020 Supreme Court ruling.

Here is Lewis participating in his final Atlanta Pride Parade in October 2019


John Lewis was one of 200 people arrested in 2013 as part of a protest to push then-Speaker of the House John Boehner to vote on an immigration reform bill. This was not the first time he was arrested. He was previously arrested for protesting apartheid outside the South African embassy and for protesting genocide in Darfur outside the Sudanese embassy. In total he was arrested five times as a member of Congress.

Prior to joining Congress, he was arrested 40 times.

After one arrest in Jackson, MS for using a whites’ only bathroom, he was sentenced to hard labor at the infamous Parchman Penitentiary.



After the mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL in June 2016 that killed 49 and wounded 53, Lewis led a sit-in to force the House to vote on gun control.


Even though then-House Speaker Paul Ryan cut the C-SPAN cameras, Lewis’ fellow Democrats found ways to show the sit-in such as now-Senator Tammy Duckworth sneaking in a smartphone in her prosthetic leg.

One thing that should be noted about Lewis is how much he loved life. Lewis was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert promoting March in August 2016 and upon the interview’s conclusion, host Stephen Colbert invited Lewis to crowd surf.


When he attended Comic-Con in 2015, John Lewis cosplayed as…

John Lewis


He could dance


And he loved cats



But one thing I noticed about Lewis in the tributes and memorials towards him is his engagement with the next generation and passing down his knowledge and experiences so that (hopefully) we can learn from those lessons so that we can create the Beloved Community that he only got a glimpse of.



On the day of his funeral, Congressman John Lewis’ final words were published in The New York Times and Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The same essay was read by actor Morgan Freeman


Thank you, Congressman John Lewis

Good luck in the next life. We will do what we can to make – as in your own words – “good trouble” and “get in the way”

And the most important thing you ever said

Vote

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