Editors Note: President Barack Obama awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Congressman John Lewis of Alabama, and 14 other Americans who have made invaluable contributions. USARiseUp congratulates all the recipients for their life-long work to improve humanity. USARiseUp is especially pleased to bring to the forefront once again, the April 2010 cover article about Congressman John Lewis as he receives this most prestigious honor.
John Lewis' Journey ... From The Edmund Pettus Bridge To The Halls Of Congress
It is a long way from Troy, Alabama, to Washington, D.C. First, you drive north a ways, through Montgomery, then turn northeast and head toward Atlanta. It will take you all day to get there, maybe longer.
It took John Lewis 46 years. He is amazed he ever got there at all. Though his journey also took him through Montgomery and Atlanta, there were many detours. Nearly every mile along the way, he met those who hoped to stop him from going any further. They beat him to prevent his progress. More than once, he thought he would die, but he kept on, keeping on.John Lewis was born in 1940 to a family of sharecroppers in Troy, Alabama, deep in the heart of the Jim Crow South. In 1955, inspired by radio and newspaper accounts of Dr. Martin Luther King's leadership of the Montgomery bus boycott, he felt God calling him to set forth on a journey of justice and reconciliation.
In 1960, his journey took him to Nashville, where he helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the organization that led sit-ins to integrate Nashville's lunch counters. In 1961, when he was a 21-year-old seminary student, his journey took him and 12 other Freedom Riders across the South on Greyhound and Trailways buses in a nonviolent protest – which he led and helped organize – that resulted in the desegregation of interstate transportation services.
Though the protestors were nonviolent, the enraged mobs they encountered were not. The Riders, savagely assaulted, yet, because he knew in his heart that God had called him to lead, John Lewis stepped forward as the first of the Riders to be beaten.
In 1965, he followed his path across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. On March 7 of that year, 600 people set out on a 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama's capital, to protest laws and practices, which prevented black citizens from voting. John Lewis and Hosea Williams led the way. As the marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, a phalanx of state troopers under orders from the governor confronted them to stop the march. When the marchers refused to turn back, the troopers set upon them with nightsticks and tear gas. Again, because he was at the head of the line, John Lewis was first to be beaten.
When he finally arrived in Washington DC in 1986 to begin serving as Atlanta's representative in Congress, John Lewis' moral and spiritual leadership had helped change the world. With the dismantling of the legal infrastructure of racial segregation and discrimination, John Lewis made great strides, but his journey was not over, there were still miles to go.
"The struggle didn't end with the end of Jim Crow," Lewis says. "Certainly, our objective was to bring an end to segregation and to put laws in place that would assure equal rights, but that was never the final goal. It was always our ultimate goal, and still is, to move beyond changing laws to changing hearts. Our goal was, and has always been, nothing less than the transformation of hearts and souls – to redeem the soul of America and create the Beloved Community."
Since his first introduction to the concept of a Beloved Community when he and other early leaders of the Civil Rights Movement began studying the philosophy and practices of nonviolence, John Lewis cherished this peaceful notion.
In 1958, while a student at American Baptist Theological Seminary, Lewis attended a series of workshops sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an ecumenical organization founded in 1914 for the purpose of promoting and teaching the power of love, truth, and justice to oppose and overcome violence, hatred, and human conflict. The workshops, led by Jim Lawson, a black seminarian who had studied Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence in India, had come to the South from his native Ohio to join the growing civil rights movement, at the urging of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In his autobiography, Walking with the Wind, John Lewis says he believes Lawson was "God-sent" to teach and train a core group of young people who would step forward to lead the struggle to end segregation and inequality through nonviolent civil disobedience.
Lewis states, unequivocally, that the America's Civil Rights Movement would not have succeeded to the extent that it did if it had not chosen the path of nonviolence.
"You cannot use violence to end violence," he says. "If the goal is to restore relationships, it cannot be achieved through violence. If the goal is forgiveness and reconciliation, that cannot be achieved through violence. You can change governments and force a change in laws through violence, but you cannot change people's hearts. You cannot create community with violence. And unless you create a community, divisions will remain."
Lewis' dedication to nonviolence is not because of its efficacy as a tactic for social change – effective though it may be. He is dedicated to nonviolence as a way of life.
"You cannot just turn it on and off whenever you choose – whenever you think it fits the circumstances," he says. "Nonviolence is something you live. It is not something you use."
Living it is not easy, and John Lewis knows that from firsthand experience. Nonviolence not only means being willing to put your body, your freedom, and even your life, on the line in order to achieve the justice and change you seek, he explains. However, just as important, it also means loving those who oppress, torment, hate, beat, and might even kill you. The philosophy of nonviolence requires that you willingly and passively absorb the blows of those who would hurt you, returning only love and compassion to them, even as they beat you.
In an essay published in the book Roads to Reconciliation: Conflict and Dialogue in the 21st Century, edited by Amy Benson Brown and Karen M. Paremski, Lewis says that in 1961, when he and his fellow Freedom Riders were attacked by vicious mobs "it felt holy and noble and good" for them to accept the blows.
This sentiment is not an expression of self-righteousness.
"Our hearts were full of forgiveness," Lewis says. "Hate is too heavy a burden to bear."
If we return hate with hate, the result is hate, Lewis explains. "We must be consumed by love and reconciliation. That is the only way to create a community – a Beloved Community – that is characterized by love and reconciliation. We want people to lay down the burden of racism. We need to become one family, living together in one house where everyone has a place at the table."
John Lewis is one of the few original leaders of the America's Civil Rights Movement that is still alive. As the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he was one of the "Big Six" organizers of the historic 1963 March on Washington DC where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. The others were Roy Wilkins, of the NAACP; A. Phillip Randolph, of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; Whitney Young, of the National Urban League; James Farmer, of the Congress of Racial Equality; and King, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Of the six, Lewis was by far the youngest at just 23-years-old.
"The day of the March was so busy for us organizers, we didn't have time to reflect," he says. "We knew we were a part of a historic event, and I do recall that when I stepped up to the podium to speak, I looked to my right, and then to my left, and was just in awe at the sea of humanity."
While King's speech is remembered for inspiring generations to dream of a more just nation, Lewis' speech at the event is remembered for its audacity. In his address, Lewis dared challenge the administration of President John Kennedy to take bolder, more decisive action to end segregation. Since Kennedy was considered an ally of the Civil Rights Movement, Lewis' questioning of the administration's commitment to the cause was considered undermining. However, John Lewis has never backed away from what he believes is right.
In another, more recent, example of Lewis' confrontational courage, he became an early and vocal opponent of the war in Iraq. For John Lewis there is a direct and real connection between the Civil Rights Movement of the Fifties and Sixties and the challenges inherent in combating terrorism. The connection is the need for nonviolent resolutions of conflict.
"War is obsolete," he says. "It cannot and should not be used as an instrument of foreign policy. If Dr. King were here today, he would say that there is a better way. The children and young people of the Middle East are going to grow up hating our children. That is not in our interest."
He states with unequivocal conviction that the only way to create a world without violence – physical, psychological, emotional, or spiritual violence – is through nonviolent means and committing to nonviolence as a way of life.
In an even more recent statement that is in keeping with his belief in the power of non-violence, on December 3, 2009, John Lewis introduced a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives acknowledging the World March for Peace and Non-Violence to mark the 140th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's birth in Wellington, New Zealand. About 100 participants will travel to 6 continents and 90 countries in 90 days to raise awareness of non-violence as a viable course of action. The marchers stopped in Washington DC on December 2 to pay tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. and his leadership in the non-violence movement.
This resolution is the fifth in a package of legislative steps Rep. Lewis has taken this year to bring attention to the capacity of non-violent action to effect change. The other resolutions: H. Res. 134 Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s pilgrimage to India; H. Res. 416 Recommitment to International Human Rights; H. R. 2616 SAFETY Through Non-Violence; and H.R.3328 King-Gandhi Scholarly Exchange Initiative Act.
In his statement to the US House, Lewis said, "Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce a resolution commending the participants and organizers of the inaugural World Peace March."
He added that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said, ‘Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.'
"The idea for this march was developed during the Symposium of the World Center for Humanist Studies in Punta de Vacas, Argentina," Lewis said. "The result is a 90-day global voyage to raise awareness about the importance of peace and nonviolence. More than 100 participants will visit 45 countries encouraging a global movement towards peace."
John Lewis said he applauds the participants for their commitment to nonviolence and their determination to follow in the footsteps of Gandhi and Dr. King.
"Earlier this year, I led a congressional delegation to India to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dr. and Mrs. King's pilgrimage," he said. "Upon return, I introduced H.R. 3328, the Gandhi-King Scholarly Exchange Initiative Act of 2009, a bill to establish initiatives through the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Institute of Peace to rededicate our nation and educate our future leaders about the power of peace.
Lewis concluded by saying, "Madam Speaker, I have dedicated my life to Gandhi's words, ‘Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong.' Nonviolence was the foundation of the Civil Rights'
John Lewis remains astounded at the progress his country has made, and stated, "If you had told me 40 years ago that today I would be a sitting member of the United States Congress, and that today we have an African-American president, I would have said you are crazy. You are out of your mind, and you do not know what you are talking about. Yet here we are."
Yet, there is still work to be done because the journey is not finished.
"There is a real danger that we will look at the progress we have made and allow ourselves to stop and rest," Lewis says. "There is a risk that we will become self-congratulatory. The challenges are not as stark as they were 40 years ago. They are more subtle now, but they are no less important. In many ways, it was easier to fight segregation than it is to fight indifference. There is no sense of urgency, no sense of ‘now.' Yet, there is still racism. There is still violence. There is still hate."
When asked if younger African-American leaders fully appreciate the sacrifices made by Lewis' generation, he says they do.
"They know. They understand. Some in the press have said there is tension between our generation and younger black leaders. I do not see that. There may be tension between certain individuals."
"You hear talk of how the ‘torch has been passed' from one generation of leaders to the next. However, this is not the Olympics. There is no torch. We all have to keep working together, young and old. Barack Obama has said that he is of the ‘Joshua Generation,' because it was Joshua who came after Moses and continued the journey to the Promised Land."
Of the "Big Six" Founding Fathers of the Civil Rights Movement, only John Lewis survives.
There are other prominent survivors of the Moses Generation: Among the early leaders, Andrew Young and Joseph Lowery; and among those who came later, Jesse Jackson and Julian Bond. However, Lewis' involvement in the Movement precedes all but Lowery's, and because of his membership and seniority in the United States Congress, he remains more active and relevant than anyone does.
There is another important distinction. More than any Civil Rights leader now living, John Lewis shed his own blood for the sake of freedom and justice.
John Lewis' commitment to a nonviolent way of life is deeply rooted in his faith.
"Without my faith I would be nothing. There is no way I could have come this far, but by faith. Only by faith can you find the strength. Only by faith can you find the courage to put your body on the line for what is right. Only by faith can you find in it yourself to forgive and be reconciled to those who would hate you and harm you. Only by faith can you learn to see them as the innocent children they once were. That is the way God sees them. That is the way God sees us all."
Legacy of Leadership
In 1966, Lewis resigned from Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Lewis, appointed Associate Director of the Field Foundation led the Southern Regional Council's voter registration programs. As Director of the Voter Education Project (VEP).
John Lewis was responsible for registering nearly four million minority voters.
In 1977, he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to direct more than 250,000 volunteers of ACTION, the federal volunteer agency.
In 1981, he was elected to the Atlanta City Council.
Lewis was elected to Congress in November 1986 and has served as U.S. Representative of Georgia's Fifth Congressional District since then. The Fifth District includes the entire city of Atlanta Georgia and parts of surrounding counties. He is Senior Chief Deputy Whip for the Democratic Party in leadership in the House, a member of the House Ways & Means Committee, a member of its Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, and Chairman of its Subcommittee on Oversight.
John Lewis holds a B.A. in Religion and Philosophy from Fisk University, and he is a graduate of the American Baptist Theological Seminary, both in Nashville, Tennessee.