John Lewis – Conscience of the Congress
By
John C Abercrombie
John Lewis is the perfect example that you don’t have to be physically tall to cast a giant shadow! He was greatly admired in the United States House of Representatives where he served for 33 years. He had friends on both sides of the aisle. The term both sides of the aisle refers to the fact that in the House of Representatives, the major parties are separated by an aisle with Democrats on one side and Republicans on the other. Lewis had friends on both sides and was universally admired as a principled man.
John Robert Lewis was born in Troy, Alabama to Willie Mae and Eddie Lewis. The 3rd of 10 children, he spent most of his early life in rural Pike County, Alabama.
He wanted to be a preacher and often practiced on the family’s chicken. We see in his life that he pursued his dream which set the course of a very successful life.
As many Black people who grew up in the South in segregated communities, by the age of 6 he had only seen 2 White people in his life. He experienced racism, segregation and Jim Crow laws while growing up in these surroundings.
Once he attempted to check out a book from the Public Library only to be told that it was for Whites only. Not only was this a humiliating experience, it is wrong on its surface as Black people pay taxes which provide such services as the library, yet they are prohibited from using it. It denies the opportunity for an equal education especially in face of the fact that from 2 to 10 times as much tax money was spent on educating Whites as Blacks in the school systems of the day.
On the occasional trips to town he experienced racism, segregation and of course the full impact of Jim Crow laws. Blacks often found no restroom facilities or food. Water, if found was not cooled while Whites found easy access to cool water. Often Blacks would not even receive service if there was a White customer waiting. Blacks were prevented from trying on items of clothing.
When Lewis visited relatives in the North, he was able to see life in a less segregated society. There were integrated schools and businesses, emphasizing the differences between the strictly enforced segregation, racism and Jim Crow laws of the South.
Lewis was greatly influenced by Martin Luther King, Jr when King became leader of the Montgomery bus boycott. He met a central figure of that case Rosa Parks at the age of 17 and King at the age of 18.
John Robert Lewis attended and graduated from American Baptist Theological Seminary (Now American Baptist College) a private school in Nashville, Tennessee and where many African American Baptist ministers trained. He was ordained a Baptist minister. Lewis received a bachelor’s degree in religion and philosophy from Fisk University also located in Nashville, Tennessee.
Fisk University is a private historically Black university in Nashville, Tennessee founded in 1866. The campus is in a historic district listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Fisk is one of the 101 Historically Black Colleges and Universities, formed because Blacks were not being admitted to White institutions, or if they were, they faced discriminatory treatment. HBCU’s do not discriminate based on race and admit people of all races.
Because of his childhood experiences, Lewis was dedicated to the civil rights movement and organized sit-ins at the segregated lunch counters in Nashville and other activities that were part of the Nashville Student Movement. Lewis believed in nonviolent activities. The groups of which Lewis was involved were successful in desegregation of those lunch counters.
In the South there was great retaliation on the part of Whites to maintain their superiority in all aspects of life. A Black could be beaten or even Lynched for speaking out against injustice. Less violent tactics included firing of family members, the refusal to do business with, even sharecroppers being thrown off the land they called home. As a result, Lewis’s parents always advised him not to get in trouble. While in Nashville Lewis came up with the often associated “good trouble, necessary trouble” phrase and motto which is often quoted when he is discussed.
As a student Lewis was chosen to attend nonviolence workshops. These workshops were led by stalwarts in the movement Rev. James Lawson and Rev. Kelly Smith at Clark Memorial United Methodist Church. The attendees became dedicated to the discipline and philosophy of nonviolence. Lewis practiced these disciplines and philosophy the remainder of his life. Lewis is noted for not only believing in these practices but living them every day of his life.
John Lewis was one of the original 13 Freedom Riders formed in 1961. They consisted of 7 White and 6 Black students determined to ride buses from Washington, DC to New Orleans, Louisiana in an integrated fashion. Keep in mind that Whites and Blacks were prohibited from riding in the same row, thus when Rosa Parks was ordered to move for the lone White man, 3 others were required to do so, because not only could a Black not sit next to a White, but could not sit on the same row on the other side of the aisle, however the other 3 complied with the order to move.
The Freedom Riders were attempting to get the United States Federal government to enforce the decision in the famous Boynton v Virginia case decided in 1960. Boynton v Virginia overturned the conviction of a Black student for trespassing by being in a restaurant in a bus station labeled “Whites only”. The Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public transportation was illegal as it violated the Interstate Commerce Act which prohibited discrimination in interstate passenger transportation.
The Freedom Riders also exposed the lack of action on the part of the federal government regarding violence against citizens who were following the law of the land.
In Rock Hill, South Carolina John Lewis as one of the Freedom Riders was savagely beaten by KKK member Elwin Wilson. In February 2009, Elwin Wilson appeared on CNN and publicly apologized to Lewis for beating him 50 years earlier.
Lewis suffered many injuries while adhering to his nonviolence principals. In Nashville, Tennessee a White waitress poured cleaning power down his back and water on his food. We also know he suffered a fractured skull in Selma, Alabama during “Bloody Sunday”.
“Bloody Sunday” is the name of a march organized by John Lewis as a demonstration for voting registration in Selma. It was also influenced by the murder of unarmed Jimmie Lee Jackson a Black veteran and civil rights activist in Marion, Alabama participating in a peaceful voting rights march. He was savagely beaten by Alabama State Trooper James Bonard Fowler.
The start of the march was the Edmond Pettus bridge, named for Edmund Winston Pettus, a senior officer in the Confederate States Army and an active member of the Ku Klux Klan, serving as a grand dragon.
In this case as so many others, structures and statues are erected to honor people who fought to deny Black citizens the rights of freedom and citizenship and to maintain them with taxes paid by those who find these structures and statues extremely offensive.
Lewis was imprisoned 40 days in the Mississippi State Penitentiary for participating in the Freedom Riders. Attempting to enjoy the rights of full citizenship only to find injustice.There is a current movement to have the bridge renamed in honor of John Robert Lewis, a man who has fought all his life for equal rights for ALL citizens.
During his life, John Lewis has been jailed 45 times. 40 before he entered Congress and 5 while serving, showing his dedication to the principals he believed in.
Lewis has described some of the violence he was subjected while involved with nonviolent protests. In Birmingham they were beaten with baseball bats, chains, led pipes and rocks. In Montgomery they were met with additional violence and Lewis was hit in the head with a wooden crate, where he was left lying in the Greyhound bus station unconscious.
Lewis and fellow activist Diane Nash (to be featured in a future post) arranged for the Nashville students to bring the ride to a successful conclusion.
In 1977 Lewis accepted a position in the Carter administration as associate director of ACTION. ACTION was a US government agency known as “The federal domestic volunteer agency. It was responsible for running the VISTA “Volunteers in Service to America” program, the Retired Senior Volunteer Program and the Foster Grandparent Program. He left after 2 ½ years to run in the 1980 elections. He ran for an at-large seat on the Atlanta City Council in 1981, winning and serving until 1986 when he ran for Congress.
Lewis ran for the 5th district seat against Georgia State Representative Julian Bond who finished 1st with 47% of the vote, with Lewis in 2nd place with 35%. Since the winner had less than 50 % it required a runoff where Lewis pulled an upset.
Lewis went on to win reelection 16 times for a total of 17 terms.
Lewis was one of the most liberal congressmen to have represented a district in the Deep South. Described by the Washington Post as “fiercely partisan Democrat but also fiercely independent. He has often been described as the “conscience of Congress” for his strict adherence to his principals, equal rights and justice for ALL. He also spoke out on gay rights and national health insurance.
Lewis is dedicated to the Civil Rights Movement and retraces his pilgrimage from Selma to Montgomery annually. A distance of 54 miles. He worked to make it a part of the Historic National Trails program.
John Lewis introduced a bill to create a national African American museum in Washington in 1988. The bill failed, however for 15 years Lewis continued to introduce the bill, but it was blocked in large part by conservative Southern senators led by the avowed White supremacist and segregationist Jesse Helms of North Carolina.
In Helms we see the agenda of the South. Dismiss the contributions of Blacks and exalt the memories of those who fought for the denial of equality to a large segment of the United States population and do it with taxpayer money. Place these obnoxious expressions in places where the oppressed will have to view them on a daily basis.
Helms did not seek reelection in 2002 and the bill gained bipartisan support. President George W Bush signed he bill in 2003. The culmination of Lewis’s efforts is the National Museum of African American History and Culture, located next to the Washington Memorial and was opened September 25, 2016. This is a must-see museum!
John Lewis became the first member of Congress to write a graphic novel in 2013 when he launched a trilogy titled March. March is a black and white comic about the Civil Rights Movement from his perspective. The first volume was published August 2013, the second in January 2015 and the final in August 2016.
Book one
• Book one received an Author Honor from the American Library Association’s Coretta Scott King Awards.
• The Robert F Kennedy Book Award
• A “Special recognition” bust in 2014
• Selected by first-year reading programs at
o Michigan State University
o Georgia State University
o Marquette University
March Book Two
• Became a New York Times Bestseller
• Washington Post bestseller for graphic novels
Book Three
In August 2016 all 3 volumes were in the top 3 slots of the New York Times bestseller list for graphic novels for 6 consecutive weeks.
• Was the recipient of the 2017 Printz Award
• The Coretta Scott King Award
• The YALSA award for Excellence in Nonfiction
• The 2016 National Book Award in Young People’s Literature
• The Sibert Medal by the American Library Association
The March trilogy received the Carter G Woodson book award
John Robert Lewis married Lillian Miles in 1968 and they had one son John Miles Lewis. His wife Lillian died December 31, 2012.
Lewis announced the diagnosis of stage IV pancreatic cancer December 29, 2019 and died of it July 17, 2020 at the age of 80 the same day as his friend and fellow civil rights activist CT Vivian (age 95).
As expected, the list of honors to John Robert Lewis is long and extensive. Including the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2010.
A link to sign the petition to rename the Edmond Pettus Bridge, click here
While it is a great symbolic honor to rename the Edmond Pettus Bridge for John Lewis, keep in mind that John Lewis did not lead a nonviolent march to have the bridge named for him. He did not suffer a fractured skull to have the bridge named for him. John Lewis marched in order to secure the right to vote for ALL! A more fitting tribute is to work and pass legislation to secure the rights that Lewis dedicated his life to. Work and vote for the rights of ALL people!
One thing to keep in mind with the movement to rename the Edmond Pettus Bridge to honor John Robert lewis is that the name Edmond Pettus was chosen as an afront to the Black community. A country with a majority of Black citizens would NEVER have chosen the name of a person who dedicated his life to repressing, degrading, taking advantage of and denying the rights and privileges of citizenship. We are overlooking the input of the citizens of Selma and the State of Alabama. Lets not repeat this often committed oversight of not regarding the concerns and input of those affected.
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Rep John Lewis’ Speech at March on Washington
This address was delivered on the same day and stage as Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
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March: Book One
Congressman John Lewis (GA-5) is an American icon, one of the key figures of the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper’s farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, and from receiving beatings from state troopers to receiving the Medal of Freedom from the first African-American president.
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John Lewis: The Selma To Montgomery Marches | MLK | TIME
John Lewis shares stories from the aftermath of the March on Washington, and how Selma became the stage for African Americans to fight for their right to vote, leading to the Selma to Montgomery marches.
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March: Book Two
“With March, Congressman John Lewis takes us behind the scenes of some of the most pivotal moments of the Civil Rights Movement. In graphic novel form, his first-hand account makes these historic events both accessible and relevant to an entire new generation of Americans.” — LeVar Burton
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Selma : The Real Selma Footage
“We did not hesitate to call our movement an army. But it was a special army, with no supplies but its sincerity, no uniform but its determination, no arsenal except its faith, no currency but its conscience.”
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March: Book Three
2016 National Book Award Winner for Young People’s Literature
2017 Printz Award Winner
2017 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner
2017 Sibert Medal Winner
2017 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Winner
2017 Walter Award Winner
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John Lewis talks about Selma and Sheriff Jim Clark
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Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement
An award-winning national bestseller, Walking with the Wind is one of our most important records of the American Civil Rights Movement. Told by John Lewis, who Cornel West calls a “national treasure,” this is a gripping first-hand account of the fight for civil rights and the courage it takes to change a nation.
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The Racist Backstory Behind Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge
The iconic bridge in Selma, Alabama, has a namesake quite unlike what the bridge has come to symbolize, and some want the name changed.
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The Heights of Hypocrisy is in the following video
NYT Op-Ed: ‘You Want A Confederate Monument? My Body Is A Confederate Monument’ | MSNBC
Writer and poet Caroline Randall Williams joins Lawrence O’Donnell to discuss how her ancestry influenced her new piece in the New York Times, why it’s “fundamentally inaccurate” to refer to Confederate soldiers as American heroes, and how she’s “interested to see what it yields beyond” just taking down the monuments.
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His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope
An intimate and revealing portrait of civil rights icon and longtime U.S. congressman John Lewis, linking his life to the painful quest for justice in America from the 1950s to the present—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Soul of America
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Congressman John Lewis interviewed by Rachel Maddow
A kind and insightful discussion between two empathetic, brilliant people. Recorded in Louisville KY, October of 2013.
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Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America
Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work/Biography.
In Across That Bridge, Congressman John Lewis draws from his experience as a prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement to offer timeless wisdom, poignant recollections, and powerful principles for anyone interested in challenging injustices and inspiring real change toward a freer, more peaceful society.
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Civil rights legend Rep. John Lewis dead at 80
John Robert Lewis, the son of sharecroppers who survived a brutal beating by police during a landmark 1965 march in Selma, Alabama, to become a towering figure of the civil rights movement and a longtime US congressman, has died after a six-month battle with cancer. He was 80.
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March (Trilogy Slipcase Set)
Winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.
Discover the inside story of the Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of one of its most iconic figures, Congressman John Lewis. March is the award-winning, #1 bestselling graphic novel trilogy recounting his life in the movement, co-written with Andrew Aydin and drawn by Nate Powell. This commemorative set contains all three volumes of March in a beautiful slipcase.
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