John Lewis – A Lifetime of Getting into Good Trouble
On Sunday, June 7, 2020, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and a worldwide uprising of people protesting for racial justice, 80-year-old Congressman John Lewis visited the newly renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, DC to honor the goals of the protesters. Accompanied by Mayor Muriel Bowser, Lewis expressed his admiration for the District’s decision to rename the plaza and for the bold yellow “Black Lives Matter” mural painted on the street.
Lewis has a higher risk of coronavirus complications due to his age and diagnosis of stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Still, he felt the need to see the mural in person, and to yet again publicly support the cause of racial justice—a cause he’s been fighting for his entire life.
In recent days, Lewis’ calls for continued action against injustice and for a spirit of love over hate have given new spiritual strength to the current struggle to end police brutality.
60 years at the center of peaceful protest
Protests in Minneapolis, Washington, DC, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and cities and towns of all sizes have stirred the nation’s conscience and its soul following the murder of African American Minneapolis resident George Floyd. Floyd was killed on Memorial Day by Minneapolis Police Department Officer Derek Chauvin. While arresting Floyd, Chauvin held him down and pushed a knee into his neck for almost nine minutes. Two other officers helped restrain Floyd and a fourth prevented bystanders from intervening.
Shortly after Floyd’s killing, Lewis released a moving statement on America’s history of violence toward African American men. He remembered the murder of Emmett Till in 1955. Till was 14, a year younger than Lewis at the time. He said that he can still see Till’s face as he thinks about wave after wave of unarmed African Americans killed or falsely accused of crimes over the decades.
Although the United States has made progress toward equality, Lewis said, his heart breaks over what happened to George Floyd and numerous other African American victims of police violence. He urged people of all backgrounds and faiths to unite in peaceful protest against the continued brutality toward communities of color, and in support of equality and justice for all. Just as he and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other leaders of the Civil Rights movement had done, “we must do so again.”
John Lewis has always used his power as an activist, orator, elected official, and citizen to bend the arc of American society toward justice.
At the front of the struggle
During the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s, John Lewis was repeatedly arrested, beaten, and assaulted by law enforcement. As chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), he and fellow activist Hosea Williams led the March 7, 1965 march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, in support of voting rights. When police stopped and assaulted the marchers, the event earned the name “Bloody Sunday.” The police beat Lewis so badly that they fractured his skull. He thought he was going to die.
But the Civil Rights movement was developing alongside more sophisticated video media, and the agonizing broadcasts of footage from Bloody Sunday shocked people around the world. The incident, and the courage of activists and leaders like Lewis, helped drive the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Finding his ideals
John Lewis was born in Alabama in 1940. His parents were sharecroppers, and he went to segregated schools.
Inspired as a teen by the acts of civil disobedience of Rosa Parks and Dr. King, Lewis hoped to desegregate Troy State College, but acceded to his parents’ wishes and attended the American Baptist Theological Institute. He graduated from Fisk University in Nashville, a historically black university, in 1967.
At Fisk, he studied nonviolent protest movements and participated in sit-ins designed to desegregate public places. In 1961, he was beaten and arrested after participating in the Freedom Rides, in which African American and white protesters defied segregation in bus terminals in the South. The Freedom Riders would attempt to use “whites-only” lunch counters and restrooms, and were frequently met with horrific violence from white counter-protestors and local law enforcement. However, the Freedom Riders’ actions drew national attention to white supremacy and inequality.
Elected as chairman of SNCC in 1963, Lewis quickly came to the attention of Dr. King as a powerful young leader. That year, Lewis rose to prominence through the leading role he played in the August 28 March on Washington, alongside Dr. King, Roy Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph, and other giants of the Civil Rights struggle.
Fulfilling the dream, continuing the fight
At only 23 years old, Lewis was one of the key speakers at the March on Washington.
His speech that day in 1963 could have been given yesterday. He called for protection for voting rights and for the safety of vulnerable people from arbitrary injustice and assault. He urged his fellow citizens to “stay in the streets” until freedom arrived and justice was done. He said, “We are tired. We are tired of being beaten by policemen. We are tired of seeing our people locked up in jail over and over again.”
In 1964, Lewis directed the SNCC voter registration drives in the South during the Freedom Summer. After leaving SNCC, he continued in positions focused on civil rights and voter registration. In 1977, he accepted President Jimmy Carter’s offer to lead ACTION, a large-scale, government-supported volunteer organization. Four years later, he won election to the city council in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1986, he was elected to Congress, representing Georgia’s Fifth District in the House of Representatives. He continues in this position today.
Lewis’ legacy
The recipient of a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2011, Lewis has garnered deep respect and accolades from leaders across the political spectrum, from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to President George W. Bush.
Lewis, along with co-author Andrew Aydin and illustrator Nate Powell, has received numerous awards for his three-volume graphic novel memoir March. The series tells the story of the Civil Rights movement through his eyes, bringing this crucial history to vivid life for young adults.
Meanwhile, director Dawn Porter’s documentary of his heroic life and struggles, set for on-demand and theatrical release in the summer of 2020, is titled John Lewis: Good Trouble. That’s the phrase Lewis has frequently used to refer to his life of activism: he urges people today to get into “good trouble.”
John Lewis today is the only surviving speaker of the March on Washington. He carries on his shoulders the mantle of the nation’s Civil Rights history, but he is no figure to be relegated to history books. He continues to lead the fight to make the US a more just, equitable nation.
In a recent speech, Lewis said, “There are forces in America that want to take us back. But we’re not going back. We’re going forward.”