John Lewis, Civil Right Icon and Respected Leader in Congress, Dies
John Lewis, civil rights icon and respected leader in Congress, died on this day.
Lewis was a co-founder and leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which organized and led sit-ins throughout the deep South, often in areas that had not previously experienced civil right activity.
In the course of his civil rights work, Lewis was arrested 40 times. And during his time in Congress he was arrested five more times.
Lewis was one of the speakers (the youngest, in fact) at the historic March on Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963. His planned speech, however, contained sharp criticisms of the Kennedy administration for not fully supporting civil rights. Several important march supporters, however, demanded that he delete certain statements they regarded as inflammatory. Out of respect for A. Philip Randolph, Lewis conceded and removed the statements in question. See the controversy over his remarks at August 28, 1963. (See also A. Philip Randolph’s planned march on Washington in 1941 equal employment in the growing defense industries. President Roosevelt tried to get him to cancel the march, but Randolph refused to budge (see June 18, 1941) and FDR then conceded by issuing an executive order on equal employment opportunity in the defense industries. The order was weak, but it was the first such federal action on employment in U.S. history.)
On March 7, 1965, on what is known as “Bloody Sunday,” John Lewis was savagely beaten by Selma police and Alabama State Troopers as he led a march of voting rights advocates on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the outskirts of Selma, Alabama. The marchers were headed for Montgomery, the state capitol of Alabama as part of an on-going campaign for voting rights. Lewis suffered severe head injuries and might have died. Television footage of the beating was broadcast around the country and the world, causing massive outrage. The march was temporarily suspended but then restarted and finally reached Montgomery. During the suspension period, President Lyndon Johnson gave a nationally broadcast speech to Congress calling for a federal voting rights law. A bill sailed through Congress, and Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965.
On November 4, 1986 Lewis was elected to the House of Representatives from the 5th District of Georgia. In the Democratic primary he had trailed Julian Bond, himself a high respected civil rights activist. But in the general election, Lewis defeated Bond. By the time of his death, Lewis had served 33 years in the House and because of his consistent pursuit of civil rights and other human rights was regularly referred to as the “conscience of the Congress.”
Read John Lewis’ Last Words to us, July 30, 2020.
Read Lewis’ Autobiography: John Lewis (with Michael D’Orso), Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (1998)
Visit Rep. Lewis’ Congressional Home Page: http://johnlewis.house.gov/
Watch newsreel footage of “Bloody Sunday”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM-tfj6lp6w