The Void
It is in times of turmoil and stress that we most appreciate our leaders and role models. And it is during those times that we feel the loss of those leaders even more intensely. First it was John McCain, the Senator who seemed to represent the best traditions of the Republican Party and of America. Next it was Elijah Cummings, the “moderator” who could speak to both sides of the political divide in Congress, just as we entered our greatest era of political upheaval. Then Friday we lost John Lewis, the moral compass of our times.
A Lifetime
John Lewis seemed to be the “Forrest Gump” of the Civil Rights movement, at every high point and nadir of the struggle for freedom. It’s because he started so young, a seventeen year old leader of sit-ins, an original Freedom Rider at twenty-one. John Lewis was at Martin Luther King’s side on the Lincoln Memorial steps for the “I Have a Dream” speech. And he wasn’t a spectator, he helped organize the march, and at twenty-three, he addressed the assembled masses there as well.
But it was in 1965 that John Lewis literally placed himself in the center of American morality. Lewis and Hosea Williams led a march trying to get from Selma to Montgomery to gain voting rights. The march crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named after a Grand Wizard of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. It was on the south side of the bridge that the State Troopers and the Klan attacked the peaceful march with tear gas, and then charged into the line of marchers with bats and nightsticks.
Lewis was among the injured, suffering a fractured skull. The attack was aired on national television, and galvanized the voting rights movement. The pressure reached President Lyndon Johnson, and lead to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The Power
John Lewis was an activist for his entire life. He had put that life on the line to prove his moral point. That certitude was his power: to use a Civil War phrase he had “faced the elephant” of racism and hate, and demonstrated his own rightness. When he spoke, in slow, measured terms, he always spoke with that power.
Lewis was history personified. But he wasn’t a relic: even at the last days of his life, he was as involved in the George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter as he was in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in the 1960’s. Jim Clyburn, a colleague and friend in Congress related a story this weekend. They were talking about the highs of the 1960’s Civil Rights movement, how non-violent sit-ins and marches achieved so much, but still fell short of equality. Clyburn related their frustration of many turning away from Dr. King’s philosophy of non-violent civil disobedience to violence and “burn baby burn”.
The killing of George Floyd brought Americans back into the streets against discrimination again. Lewis and Clyburn saw both the hope of black and white marching together, and the fear of rioting destroying the whole movement. They spoke from their experience; it was why Clyburn stood against the “Defund the Police” phrase so vehemently.
To The End
In the last months, when Lewis faced his own mortality with pancreatic cancer, he continued his “mission” to America. He spoke at the Pettus Bridge once again, and he continued to condemn the actions of President Trump. Like McCain and Cummings, he worked to the last moments of his life so much so that his inevitable death still took us all by surprise.
We live in an era of stark contrast. The shining example of John Lewis stands against the angry and attacking Donald Trump interviewed this weekend. We feel the void left by all these losses as we move toward the critical moment of the 2020 election. But John Lewis would want us use what we he taught us. Face “the elephant”. Stand up against what is wrong. Be willing to stand against those who would deny “The Dream” just as Lewis faced hate and violence at the bridge. That is his legacy to us. And it is our obligation to him, and to our country.
