John Lewis, Civil Rights Hero, Has Died

[AGBF]

John Lewis, a current member of the US House of Representatives and a hero of the civil rights movement has died at eighty years old. He was an incredible man who fought with non-violence for justice at the risk of his own life, which he almost lost on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in 1965..

John Lewis, Towering Figure of Civil Rights Era, Dies at 80 (Published 2020)

Images of his beating at Selma shocked the nation and led to swift passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He was later called the conscience of the Congress.

www.nytimes.com

 

[AGBF]

This is an excerpt from a piece written by The Editorial Board of "The New York Times". They quote Congressman Lewis, who uses the n word explicitly. I did not change what they wrote because it is what Congressman Lewis wrote. In my opinion, Congressman Lewis appears to have a very Christian view of the world, following what I believe are the beliefs of Jesus since he obviously believes in turning the other cheek. "The New York Times" makes little comment on this matter.

"By his early 20s, Mr. Lewis had embraced a form of nonviolent protest grounded in the principle of 'redemptive suffering'— a term he learned from the Rev. James Lawson, who had studied the style of nonviolent resistance that the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi had put into play during British colonial rule. The principle reminded Mr. Lewis of his religious upbringing and of a prayer his mother had often recited.

In his memoir 'Walking With the Wind,' written with Michael D’Orso, Mr. Lewis explains that there was 'something in the very essence of anguish that is liberating, cleansing, redemptive,' adding that suffering 'touches and changes those around us as well. It opens us and those around us to a force beyond ourselves, a force that is right and moral, the force of righteous truth that is at the basis of human conscience.'

The essence of the nonviolent life, he wrote, is the capacity to forgive — 'even as a person is cursing you to your face, even as he is spitting on you, or pushing a lit cigarette into your neck' — and to understand that your attacker is as much a victim as you are. At bottom, this philosophy rested upon the belief that people of good will — 'the Beloved Community,' as Mr. Lewis called them — would rouse themselves to combat evil and injustice.

Mr. Lewis carried these beliefs into the Freedom Rides. The travelers described their departing meal at a Chinese restaurant in Washington as 'The Last Supper.' Several of the participants had actually written out wills, consistent with the realization that they might never make it home. No one wanted to die, but it was understood that a willingness to do so was essential to the quest for justice.

The Ku Klux Klan did its best to secure such a sacrificial outcome. It firebombed a bus at Anniston, Ala., and tried unsuccessfully to burn the Freedom Riders alive by holding the exit doors shut. 'Walking With the Wind' describes the especially harrowing episode that unfolded on the Freedom Ride bus on which he arrived in Montgomery, Ala.

The terminal seemed nearly deserted, he writes, but 'then, out of nowhere, from every direction, came people. White people. Men, women and children. Dozens of them. Hundreds of them. Out of alleys, out of side streets, around the corners of office buildings, they emerged from everywhere, from all directions, all at once, as if they’d been let out of a gate . … They carried every makeshift weapon imaginable. Baseball bats, wooden boards, bricks, chains, tire irons, pipes, even garden tools — hoes and rakes. One group had women in front, their faces twisted in anger, screaming, "Git them niggers, GIT them niggers!" … And now they turned to us, this sea of people, more than three hundred of them, shouting and screaming, men swinging fists and weapons, women swinging heavy purses, little children clawing with their fingernails at the faces of anyone they could reach.'

Mr. Lewis’s fellow Freedom Riders tried in vain to escape the mob by scaling trees and terminal walls. 'It was madness. It was unbelievable,' Mr. Lewis recalled '… I could see Jim Zwerg now, being horribly beaten. Someone picked up his suitcase, which he had dropped, and swung it full force against his head. Another man then lifted Jim’s head and held it between his knees while others, including women and children, hit and scratched at Jim’s face. His eyes were shut. He was unconscious …. At that instant I felt a thud against my head. I could feel my knees collapse and then nothing. Everything turned white for an instant, then black'.”

 

[Demon]

John Lewis, a current member of the US House of Representatives and a hero of the civil rights movement has died at eighty years old. He was an incredible man who fought with non-violence for justice at the risk of his own life, which he almost lost on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in 1965..

John Lewis, Towering Figure of Civil Rights Era, Dies at 80 (Published 2020)

Images of his beating at Selma shocked the nation and led to swift passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He was later called the conscience of the Congress.

www.nytimes.com

This death made me cry a little. He was such a good man. RIP

 

[MeowMeow]

I hope he rests peacefully. He absolutely deserves it.

 

[123ducklings]

Rest in power. A real hero; an amazing person.

 

[partgypsy]

I heard a rumour last week? He died but it wasn't true. May he rest in peace after giving the good fight.

 

[Tekate]

Truly, a GREAT MAN... he will be missed.

 

[AGBF]

I heard a rumour last week? He died but it wasn't true. May he rest in peace after giving the good fight.

He died last night, Friday night, from the pancreatic cancer he has been fighting.

 

[Matata]

 

[ItsMainelyYou]

Crying again. A Beacon in the dark. What a human.

 

[Dancing Fire]

John Lewis, a current member of the US House of Representatives and a hero of the civil rights movement has died at eighty years old. He was an incredible man who fought with non-violence for justice at the risk of his own life, which he almost lost on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in 1965..

A great civil rights leader who believe in nonviolence like the great MLK. The BLM movement can learn a lot from the great leaders of our past...RIP Mr. Lewis

 

[AGBF]

A great civil rights leader who believe in nonviolence like the great MLK. The BLM movement can learn a lot from the great leaders of our past...RIP Mr. Lewis

I am sure that they did. In turn, John Lewis was proud of the Black Lives Matter movement.

"Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis visited Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, DC, Sunday morning, calling the new mural emblazoned in yellow paint on the street 'a powerful work of art'
In a series of photos posted on Twitter by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser on Sunday, the Georgia Democrat is seen standing next to the mayor wearing a mask on the giant mural, which spans two blocks of 16th Street, a central axis that leads southward straight to the White House.

Bowser thanked Lewis for coming to the plaza and wrote, 'We've walked this path before.'
'We've walked this path before, and will continue marching on, hand in hand, elevating our voices, until justice and peace prevail,' Bowser tweeted. 'Thank you for joining me at Black Lives Matter Plaza, in front of the White House, @repjohnlewis.'


Lewis, 80, 'was moved' by the street mural and 'wanted to see it in person,' his chief of staff, Michael Collins, told CNN on Sunday. 'He said it was a powerful work of art.'"