REST IN POWER JOHN LEWIS
I grew up in a house full of books. Many were devoted to the African American experience, especially from the Civil Rights Movement. The stories and pictures are seared into my brain. Meeting historical figures from that era has always been an awe-inspiring experience for me.
I remember being a teenager when my mother, Eleanor Holmes Norton, who was part of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) that championed desegregation and voting rights in the 1960s, held a meeting in our house. I answered the door and almost fainted when I saw one of the attendees was going to be Coretta Scott King, the wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Fresh out of college I worked at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to help turnout the African American vote before the 1994 elections. Rev. Jesse Jackson, a protégé of Dr. King who ran for President in 1984 and 1988, was central to that effort. Meeting him in person at the DNC was a shock the system.
Most recently, I attended the 2010 White House Congressional Picnic with my future wife Tiffany. One of my mother’s colleagues from SNCC and Congress was Rep. John Lewis (D-GA). His storied career included speaking at the 1963 March on Washington and having his skull fractured by Alabama State Troopers in a march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge to register African Americans to vote. That seminal moment of bravery by all the partiipants in the face of state-sponsored vilence was known as Bloody Sunday violence. It helped hasten the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act a few months later. Tiffany and I were both amazed to meet him and struck by his humble nature.
Rep. Lewis showed us what the power of youthful activism looks like. He meet Dr. King as an 18 year old. He was a young man who saw injustice around him and decided to do something about it. He wasn’t content to let his future be determined by the adults who hadn’t figured out how to end the Jim Crow laws that dominated the South.
Most movements for progress are led by young people like him. The current fights for issues like common sense gun reform and combatting climate change rely on the persistence, powerful voices of young people who find the status quo unaccpetable. The past couple of months have seen a reinvigorated fight for racial justice in the wake of police murdering George Floyd in front of witnesses in broad daylight. The ensuing nationwide protest that have sweep America and echoed around the world are being led by young people.
Rep. Lewis entire life has been dedicated to ecouraging the next generation in their quest to create a better America. The National Children’s Campaign is trying to follow his example. Our mission is about giving a greater voice to the concerns of young people in our political discourse.
Late last night Tiffany told me Rep. Lewis had died. I wasn’t surprised since he had been battling pancreatic cancer, but it was a still a gut punch. This morning as I watch television and read through social media as the tributes to Rep. Lewis are pouring in, I am in tears. We can honor this true giant of American history by doing a couple of things:
- Force Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2019, which reauthorizes the legislation Rep. Lewis put his life on the line to make a reality 55 years ago.
- Rename the bridge that Rep. Lewis almost died on after him, as opposed to Edmund Pettis, who was Confederate General and leader of the Alabama KKK.
- Watch John Lewis: Good Trouble, a documentary film about his life.
- Support the Black Lives Matter movement, which is the next generation of young civil rights leaders fighting for racial justice.
- Make sure everyone you know is registered to vote and then vote this November up and down the ballot. Then repeat that act in every election afterwards.
In closing I want to share some inspirational quotes from Rep. Lewis. May he rest in power.
“I appeal to all of you to get into this great revolution that is sweeping this nation. Get in and stay in the streets of every city, every village and hamlet of this nation until true freedom comes, until the revolution of 1776 is complete.”
— At the 1963 March on Washington
“My dear friends: Your vote is precious, almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union.”
— A 2012 speech in Charlotte, North Carolina
“Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society.”
— From his 2017 memoir, “Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America”
“You are a light. You are the light. Never let anyone—any person or any force—dampen, dim or diminish your light. Study the path of others to make your way easier and more abundant.”
— From his 2017 memoir, “Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America”
“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”
— A tweet from June 2018