Civil Rights icon and U.S. Representative John R. Lewis spent his youth putting his life on the line across the South in the name of equality for Black people. It was a fight he eventually carried into the halls of Congress, where he served for more than 30 years.
After a life filled with purpose – dedicated to racial equity and social justice – Lewis passed away Friday night. He was 80 years old.
“He loved this country so much that he risked his life and his blood so that it might live up to its promise,” said President Barack Obama. “And through the decades, he not only gave all of himself to the cause of freedom and justice, but inspired generations that followed to try to live up to his example.”
The Georgia lawmaker announced in December that he was suffering from Stage IV pancreatic cancer.
“Today, America mourns the loss of one of the greatest heroes of American history: Congressman John Lewis, the Conscience of the Congress,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement about Lewis’ passing.
Lewis’ death came twelve hours after fellow Civil Rights legend Rev. C.T. Vivian passed at the age of 95.
“Congressman John Lewis has been called home to take his rightful place of eternal honor beside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr,; Malcom X; Frederick Douglass; Nelson Mandela and all the brave souls who sacrificed so much for the cause of civil rights,” said U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay. “He believed in the promise of America, and that Black Americans would gain their full measure of freedom and take a seat at the table of power that guides our democracy.”
‘The boy from Troy’
John Robert Lewis was born Feb. 21, 1940, to Willie Mae and Eddie Lewis in Pike County, Alabama. They started off as sharecroppers, but his father scraped and saved $300 to purchase 110 acres of land in Troy, Alabama, where they farmed cotton.
His siblings took on his portion of the chores as he opted to focus on his education – sometimes hiding under the porch so he could run for the bus before anyone could catch him and make him return work the land.
“I could tell he thought the world was bigger than what we were doing,” Henry Lewis said about his brother in the film “John Lewis: Good Trouble. “He had bigger things in mind.”
The one chore he would never evade was his responsibility of caring for the chickens. He spoke of the experience when he addressed the Spring 2016 graduating class of Washington University in St. Louis, where he delivered a commencement address and received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. “I fell in love with raising chickens,” Lewis said. He then gave the graduates an excerpt of his favorite – and perhaps most famous – childhood memory.
“I used to take the little chickens and put ’em all together in a chicken yard,” Lewis said. “And my cousins and brothers and sisters would line the outside around the chicken yard, they would help make up the audience, or the congregation, and I became the minister. And I would preach to these chickens. Some of these chickens would bow their heads, some of these chickens would shake their heads – but they never quite said ‘Amen.’”
It was a 17-year-old John Lewis who wrote to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. asking for help with entering a college near his family farm. He was rejected because of the color of his skin.
The young man left an impression on Dr. King and a bond was forged. King endearingly referred to Lewis as “the boy from Troy” from that point forward, though Lewis was well into his twenties at the time of King’s assassination in 1968. He went on to graduate from American Baptist Theological Seminary before attending Fisk University. Both are historically Black institutions located in Nashville, Tennessee. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Religion and Philosophy from Fisk. Soon after he was elected chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Like his mentor Dr. King, he devoted his existence to fighting the laws of segregation in the Jim Crow South that had been an extension of the racial terror Black people experienced during slavery.
Lewis risked jail and death as an original Freedom Rider. He was also one of the organizers of the 1963 March on Washington.
“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,” a 23-year-old Lewis told the crowd of hundreds of thousands. “We must get in this revolution and complete the revolution. For in the Delta in Mississippi, in southwest Georgia, in the Black Belt of Alabama, in Harlem, in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and all over this nation, the black masses are on the march for jobs and freedom.”
Bloody Sunday’s hero
As a soldier of the Civil Rights movement participating in actions and demonstrations across the south, his most famous battle came two years after The March On Washington – in his home state of Alabama. In Selma, Lewis became a critical voice within the Civil Rights Movement in his own right.
“Fifty-five years ago, John Lewis marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge into American history,” Clay said. “He was beaten, bloodied, but not broken; and his sacrifice propelled the passage of the Voting Rights Act.”
The day would become known as “Bloody Sunday.”
“As we approached the bridge – we saw a sea of blue… Alabama State Troopers,” Lewis said in the film “John Lewis: Good Trouble.” Ironically, the Dawn Porter documentary was released just two weeks before his passing.
Lewis is seen on camera getting beaten and then trampled as the troopers made their way to launch an assault on other marchers. They were attacked before they could fully turn their backs to retreat and heed the dispersal order. “My knees went from under me,” Lewis said with his signature booming Southern drawl reduced to a tremble as he recounted the horrifying moment. “I thought I was going to die on that bridge.”
He lived. And he continued to fight – until his very last breath.
“John wore his humanity and decency on his sleeve,” Clay said. “And he never became bitter about the systemic racism he was born into or the vicious racial violence that he stared down time after time with the power of his dignity and non-violent civil disobedience.”
A legislative life well served
He was elected to the U.S. Congress, a Democrat representing Georgia’s 5th District, in 1987 – a seat he would hold for the remainder of his life, and use to hold the country accountable in its unkept promise of declaring freedom and equality for all men.
“He distinguished himself as an effective policymaker and true progressive who was relentless in his fight on behalf of the least of these,” said U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters. “As a result, he earned the respect of not only his colleagues on both sides of the aisle, but elected officials and leaders around the world. It was the honor of my life to serve alongside such a kind, courageous, and persistent leader and public servant.”
Lewis was presented with the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his service in Congress and as a frontline general in the Civil Rights movement.
“In so many ways, John’s life was exceptional. But he never believed that what he did was more than any citizen of this country might do,” Obama said. “He believed that in all of us, there exists the capacity for great courage, a longing to do what’s right, a willingness to love all people, and to extend to them their God-given rights to dignity and respect.”
The award was given to him by the nation’s first African American president.
“When we award this medal to a Congressman John Lewis, it says that we aspire to be a more just, more equal, more perfect union,” Obama said during the ceremony on February 15, 2011.
“I accept this great honor on behalf of the countless individuals who decided to stand up, speak up, and speak out,” Lewis said upon receiving the award. “For those who stood in unmovable lines trying to register to vote all across the South, for all of the Freedom Riders who were beaten and jailed, for all the participants of the modern-day Civil Rights Movement who helped transform America forever, and those who could not be here today.”
Much of his 17 terms in Congress was spent fighting for the “Beloved Community” his mentor Dr. King envisioned for the country.
“We will restore the soul of America,” Lewis said. “There might be some setbacks and some delays, but as a nation and as a people, we will get there. “My philosophy is very simple: when you see something that is not right, not fair, not just… say something,” Lewis said. Get in trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble. That can save our country and save our democracy.”
In his twenties, he fought against voter restrictions faced by Blacks. In his seventies, he employed the same fervency and vigor to shed light on voter suppression.
“We are going through a difficult time in America,” Lewis said while stumping for Stacey Abrams during her 2018 Georgia gubernatorial campaign. “My greatest fear is that we will wake up one day and our democracy is gone. We cannot afford to let that happen – and as long as I have breath in my body, I will do what I can.”
Lewis is survived by his son John Miles Lewis. His wife Lillian Miles Lewis preceded him in death.
“Not many of us get to live to see our own legacy play out in such a meaningful, remarkable way. John Lewis did,” said Obama. “And thanks to him, we now all have our marching orders – to keep believing in the possibility of remaking this country we love until it lives up to its full promise.”
