Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., near the statue of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the Capitol Rotunda
That's the way it is! Was how John Lewis summed up the ideas of his parent, grandparents, and even great grandparents about racism and segregation in the South. Lewis explained this position to Jake Tapper in an interview for CNN conducted at the Martin Luther King memorial in Washington, D.C.
Lewis's relatives didn't want John to get into any trouble. As he said many times, “get into trouble, get into some good trouble.” At age 18, he was organizing fellow students to become active in the emerging civil rights movement. He was inspired by Dr. King and eventually became the youngest member of what was called the Big Six of civil rights leaders of that era. His passing marks the end of that era led by King.
Lewis came into the national consciousness with his speech he gave in Washington in the summer of 1963, the occasion of King's "I Have a Dream" address. Two years later, he was beaten unconscious by white police officers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.
Lewis exemplified what it means to lead at an early age. Lewis was possessed of the spirit of equality and spent his life focused on making things better. In that spirit, Lewis is worthy of study, especially when we quote his own words.
Moral Clarity. Equality for all. Enshrined in the Constitution as the original American idea. It does not get any more clear. Yet Lewis grew up in Jim Crow South when equality was determined by skin color. Blacks need not apply, especially when it came to voting. That was Lewis's mission; it was the lodestar of his life, and as he, like King, noted, many times, he may not live to see it wholly fulfilled. “We are one people with one family,” Lewis said. “We all live in the same house... and through books, through information, we must find a way to say to people that we must lay down the burden of hate. For hate is too heavy a burden to bear.”
Aspiration. Lewis, son of a sharecropper, knew at an early age that he wanted to become involved in the great cause of his time. At 16, he heard Martin Luther King speak on the radio. From then on Lewis knew he would become active in the civil rights movement. “Freedom is not a state,” Lewis wrote in his memoir, Across That Bridge,” 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.”
Courage. Lewis was arrested hundreds of times and beaten more than once. He never shirked from the battle. He drew courage from the example of others, and in turn, his example inspired them to risk their lives. Lewis lived by his words, “If you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something about it.”
Friendship. With Lewis's passing, many politicians from both sides of the aisle have heaped praise on him. Often they recall not merely his example but his humanity. His friend Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina met Lewis in 1960. Their wives, too, met around the same time and became fast friends; both were librarians. And as Clyburn recalled to Jake Tapper on CNN's State of the Union, the two women were not above advising their husbands about how things were progressing, or not progressing, in the struggle for human rights.
And lest we forget John Lewis knew how to have a good time. He enjoyed dancing. Once, after an interview on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Lewis crowd surfed through the audience. This sense of levity might have been something he took from Dr. King, who had a good sense of humor himself and loved to laugh and joke with his associates as a means of alleviating tension.
John Lewis was a man of grace, seeking harmony with others and serving as a catalyst for peace. He was a man for all of us. And so it is fitting close with these words of his:
"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."
