When John Lewis took part in the Civil Rights movement of the 60's he did so, like the many others who also faced off against hate spewing racists, police, water cannon, and dogs, in hopes of a better future for black people in America, and in turn, for a better America as a whole.
So I'd have to imagine that in his waning days, there was, along with a sense of a career of ACCOMPLISHMENT, for a LIFETIME of service to his country and his community, perhaps SOME degree of sorrow in that, after all of this time and all of the struggles of the movement, and the fight for legislation and laws that simply asked that African Americans be afforded the same degree of dignity, respect, equality and opportunity, as our non-black counterparts, this country, in a number of ways is STILL in the grip of racism, bigotry, discrimination, and disparity. That the struggle for Civil Rights, in many ways, has only just begun.
Which is why it's ever incumbent upon US, and those who'll come afterward, to CONTINUE the struggle. To take up the mantle and NEVER rest, NEVER SAY DIE.
So that the hard work, the valor, the struggle and the sacrifice, of those who've gone before us, SHALL not be in vain. Rest in peace Mr. Lewis.
Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon who began pushing for racial justice in the Jim Crow south, has died
https://www.yahoo.com/news/rep-john-lewis-civil-rights-033519950.html
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The son of Alabama sharecroppers, Lewis served in Congress for more than three decades, pushing the causes he championed as an original Freedom Rider challenging segregation, discrimination and injustice in the Deep South – issues reverberating today in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Along with Martin Luther King Jr., he was an organizer of the March on Washington in 1963, a seminal moment in the Civil Rights Movement that led to the passage of voting rights for Blacks two years later.
He became a community activist and member of the Atlanta City Council before winning a seat in Congress in 1986. He would go on to become a best-selling author and in 2011 was awarded the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president. Lewis was elected to his 17th term in November 2018.
"(A)ll these years later, he is known as the Conscience of the United States Congress, still speaking his mind on issues of justice and equality," Obama said in 2011, as he was bestowing the Medal of Freedom. "And generations from now, when parents teach their children what is meant by courage, the story of John Lewis will come to mind – an American who knew that change could not wait for some other person or some other time; whose life is a lesson in the fierce urgency of now."
Barack Obama: John Lewis 'Risked His Life' So This Nation Could 'Live Up To Its Promise'
[URL='https://www.yahoo.com/news/lewis-remembered-conscience-congress-inspired-044700663.html']Obama on his 'hero' Rep. John Lewis: 'I was only there because of the sacrifices he made'[/URL]
[URL='https://www.yahoo.com/news/lewis-remembered-conscience-congress-inspired-044700663.html'][/URL]
[URL='https://www.yahoo.com/news/lost-giant-reaction-death-congressman-044046389.html']'We have lost a giant': Reaction to death of Congressman John Lewis[/URL]
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/barack-obama-john-lewis-065409883.html
So I'd have to imagine that in his waning days, there was, along with a sense of a career of ACCOMPLISHMENT, for a LIFETIME of service to his country and his community, perhaps SOME degree of sorrow in that, after all of this time and all of the struggles of the movement, and the fight for legislation and laws that simply asked that African Americans be afforded the same degree of dignity, respect, equality and opportunity, as our non-black counterparts, this country, in a number of ways is STILL in the grip of racism, bigotry, discrimination, and disparity. That the struggle for Civil Rights, in many ways, has only just begun.
Which is why it's ever incumbent upon US, and those who'll come afterward, to CONTINUE the struggle. To take up the mantle and NEVER rest, NEVER SAY DIE.
So that the hard work, the valor, the struggle and the sacrifice, of those who've gone before us, SHALL not be in vain. Rest in peace Mr. Lewis.
Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon who began pushing for racial justice in the Jim Crow south, has died
https://www.yahoo.com/news/rep-john-lewis-civil-rights-033519950.html
The son of Alabama sharecroppers, Lewis served in Congress for more than three decades, pushing the causes he championed as an original Freedom Rider challenging segregation, discrimination and injustice in the Deep South – issues reverberating today in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Along with Martin Luther King Jr., he was an organizer of the March on Washington in 1963, a seminal moment in the Civil Rights Movement that led to the passage of voting rights for Blacks two years later.
He became a community activist and member of the Atlanta City Council before winning a seat in Congress in 1986. He would go on to become a best-selling author and in 2011 was awarded the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president. Lewis was elected to his 17th term in November 2018.
"(A)ll these years later, he is known as the Conscience of the United States Congress, still speaking his mind on issues of justice and equality," Obama said in 2011, as he was bestowing the Medal of Freedom. "And generations from now, when parents teach their children what is meant by courage, the story of John Lewis will come to mind – an American who knew that change could not wait for some other person or some other time; whose life is a lesson in the fierce urgency of now."
Barack Obama: John Lewis 'Risked His Life' So This Nation Could 'Live Up To Its Promise'
[URL='https://www.yahoo.com/news/lewis-remembered-conscience-congress-inspired-044700663.html']Obama on his 'hero' Rep. John Lewis: 'I was only there because of the sacrifices he made'[/URL]
[URL='https://www.yahoo.com/news/lewis-remembered-conscience-congress-inspired-044700663.html'][/URL]
[URL='https://www.yahoo.com/news/lost-giant-reaction-death-congressman-044046389.html']'We have lost a giant': Reaction to death of Congressman John Lewis[/URL]
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/barack-obama-john-lewis-065409883.html
