“Good Trouble, Necessary Trouble”
“Good Trouble, Necessary Trouble”
A Tribute To Civil Rights Warrior John Lewis
By Wes Hessel
Black And White
February 21st, 1940, John Robert Lewis was born near Troy, AL, the third oldest of his nine siblings. His parents were sharecroppers, eking a living out of the land. As was typical for African-Americans in the South at the time, segregation was just a part of life. John was not really aware of the difference elsewhere for some years until he began traveling to visit relatives in the North. This particularly became apparent when, at 11 years old, an uncle took him to Buffalo, NY, where he saw clearly the integration of Northern businesses and institutions, in stark contrast to the boldly drawn lines of Troy in black and white.
Faith In Action
From a young age, he was a man of faith who spoke out about it and from it. At 5, Master Lewis was pronouncing lessons over his first flock, the family’s chickens. Ten years later, Mr. Lewis gave his debut sermon in public. That same year, John had heard Martin Luther King, Jr. speak for the first time on a radio broadcast. Mr. Lewis then watched closely the King-led boycott of the Montgomery city buses, sparked to flame by the resolve of Rosa Parks. John first met MLK when he was 18. In addition to Dr. King’s inspiration, Mr. Lewis later credited evangelist Billy Graham as a significant influence on his choice to enter Christian ministry.
“The Boy From Troy”
Having been denied admission by Troy University, Mr. Lewis wrote to MLK, and an invitation was extended for John to discuss it personally with Dr. King. The civil rights leader and Mr. Lewis considered together the possibility of pursuing a discrimination suit against the school but MLK cautioned “the boy from Troy”, as Dr. King came to call John, that Mr. Lewis’ family could be put at risk. After conferring with his parents, John opted instead to attend a historically black college in Nashville, American Baptist Theological Seminary. Mr. Lewis was ordained in the Baptist church, and later continued his education, receiving a second Bachelor of Arts in religion and philosophy from Fisk University.
“Good Trouble” Begins
During his years studying in Nashville, John began his own career of nonviolent activism for civil rights. At the time, Nashville like the rest of the South separated the races by strict Jim Crow laws. John organized sit-ins at lunch counters in the city. Furthermore, he was active in bus boycotts and other Nashville Student Movement-led protests. It was in this phase of his life that he coined his famous phrase, typically shortened down to, “good trouble”. And John Lewis indeed had – gotten into “good trouble, necessary trouble.”
Continuing The Fight
By this time he had several arrests under his belt resulting from those demonstrations. It was a habit he continued as late as 2009, when Representative Lewis was arrested for participating in a protest at the Sudan embassy against the Darfur genocide. In 2016, he, along with Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, led a sit-in on the House floor demanding a gun safety legislation vote on a bill prompted by the Orlando nightclub massacre.
Rides For Freedom
Civil rights activists known as the Freedom Riders rode interstate buses into the segregated South in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions in Morgan v. Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960). Both decisions ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. but the southern states continued to perpetuate Jim Crow and enforce segregation. John Lewis was one of the original members of the Freedom Riders. The group consisted of thirteen people, six other black activists and six white activists. They rode interstate buses from our nation’s capital to the “Big Easy”. But there was nothing easy about it.
Beatings And Violence
Members of the group were severely beaten and arrested at several places along the way, so original project developer CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) bowed out of the protest rides due to concerns over the violence plaguing the Freedom Riders. John and another civil rights activist Diane Nash worked with Nashville area college students from Fisk and other institutions to recruit riders to finish the planned route. Once again, Mr. Lewis did not shy away from staying in the fight.
Starting The SNCC
Building on his student activism work, John was a charter member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Its first chairman Charles McDew relinquished his seat in 1963. John Lewis was elected by his peers to replace McDew. John by then had become one of the civil rights “Big Six”. In other words he was among the half-dozen leaders of the American civil rights movement. The other five were James Farmer, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, and, of course, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. These six men coordinated the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which brought more than 200,000 protesters to the nation’s capitol.
The March On Washington
John Lewis was fourth on the program to speak to the throng of protesters. On August 28th, 1963; at age 23 he was the youngest speaker. He prepared remarks and shared them with other leaders. Members of the Big Six, plus four other white group leaders participating in the march, (Mathew Ahmann, executive director of the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice; Eugene Carson Blake, former president of the National Council of Churches; Joachim Prinz, president of the American Jewish Congress; and Walter Reuther, president of the United Automobile Workers), voiced concern that John’s messaging in regards to the lack of action on the part of the government and the Kennedy administration, specifically was too incendiary.
“Inflammatory” Passages
A condemnation of Kennedy’s civil rights bill John had planned to say, “In good conscience, we cannot support wholeheartedly the administration’s Civil Rights Bill, for it is too little and too late.” This was changed to, “It is true that we support the administration’s Civil Rights Bill. We support it with great reservation, however.” Another passage saying, “We will march through the South, through the heart of Dixie, the way Sherman did. We shall pursue our own scorched earth policy and burn Jim Crow to the ground—nonviolently…” was dropped entirely. Even with the revisions, John did implore protestors to, “get in and stay in the streets of every city, every village and hamlet of this nation until true freedom comes…”
The Worst Was Yet To Come
Although the March brought visibility to Mr. Lewis’ leadership in the civil rights movement, the defining moment which cast the national limelight on John came almost two years later. It happened at the Alabama town whose name is synonymous with the extremely violent police response to peaceful civil rights protests in those years: Selma.
Working To Register
The roots of the infamous day known as “Bloody Sunday” were planted in 1963 when the SNCC joined local voting rights organizers DCVL (Dallas County Voters League) in campaigns to register blacks in the county and Selma proper. The powerful organization SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), of which Dr. King was president, moved into the area at the beginning of 1965 to further the work and raise awareness on the immoral use of disenfranchisement tools by white supremacist politicians such as poll taxes and literacy tests. President Lyndon Johnson agreed in the need to shine a light on these practices, to demonstrate the need to make the Voting Rights Act law. Dr. King, in a telephone conversation with the President on February 9th, said he intended for the Selma area to be that focus point.
The Fire Burns Hotter
The flames were fanned by the February 26th death of deacon Jimmie Lee Jackson, an activist shot by an Alabama state trooper at a nonviolent protest several days before. The head of SCLC’s efforts in Selma, James Bevel, proposed a dramatic fifty-plus mile march from Selma to Montgomery. On Sunday, March 7th, a group of approximately 600 demonstrators, led by John Lewis and SCLC principal Hosea Williams, began the journey.
Selma Welcome
The now infamous Edmund Pettus Bridge is where the Selma city limits ended. There, a phalanx of state troopers, county sheriff’s deputies, and a posse of white men, blocked the marchers. The protesters paused in prayer, but they were given a two minute warning to disperse by trooper Major John Cloud. Mr. Williams attempted to speak with the Major but was rebuffed. Before the time expired, they were tear-gassed and set upon by the around 150 “lawmen” and a contingent of troopers on horseback, who beat them mercilessly with nightsticks and bullwhips. Forever marking this day as “Bloody Sunday.”
Carnage Uncivil
Seventeen marchers had to be hospitalized. Among them, local organizer Amelia Boynton, whose picture lying unconscious on the bridge garnered national media exposure of the event. A 14-year-old girl, Lynda Blackmon Lowery, required a total of 35 stitches for her injuries – seven for a cut over her right eye and the rest for the wound on the back side of her head. John Lewis himself sustained a skull fracture, the scars from which he would have until his passing. The Edmund Pettus Bridge as the site of this travesty is particularly ironic: it was opened for traffic three months after John’s birth, so the same age in essence as Mr. Lewis was, and was named for a Confederate brigadier general who became the head of Alabama’s Ku Klux Klan, and then a U.S. senator.
Third Time Had Charm
Two days later a second repeat march went no further than the first. Momentum was building for the full route plan to be carried out. After receiving a court ruling declaring the march was unlawfully prevented, the third try began March 21st at the Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church. Initially the third march drew about 8,000 participants. By the time the marchers reached the City of St. Jude on the outskirts of Montgomery March 24th, the group had swelled to 25,000. The national and international attention helped President Johnson get the Voting Rights Act bill and others pushed through, with broad support, and further galvanized the civil rights movement.
Moving On
John stepped down from his SNCC chairmanship in 1966 and became an associate director for the Field Foundation in New York City. A little over a year later he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to direct the Community Organization Project of the Southern Regional Council (SRC). It was there at New Year’s party given by Xernona Clayton that John Lewis first met Lillian Miles. They were married in 1968, and had one son, John-Miles Lewis. John and Lillian were together until her death at the end of 2012. She was his friend, his confidant and political advisor.
Four Million
In 1970, Mr. Lewis became head of the SRC’s Voter Education Project (VEP), which was spun off from the SRC to be its own organization the next year. John continued in the directorship until 1977. During his tenure at VEP, the institution was credited with registering approximately four million voters of color.
Entry Into The Political Arena
In the spring of 1977, Mr. Lewis ran unsuccessfully for the Congressional seat vacated by Andrew Young. Young had been tapped by President Carter for the Ambassadorship to the U.N. After his defeat, John himself then became a part of the Carter administration, as an associate director of the federal volunteer coordination agency ACTION – Mr. Lewis oversaw the VISTA, Foster Grandparent, and Retired Senior Volunteer Programs for 2 ½ years. In 1981, John was elected to the Atlanta City Council, as an at-large representative, where he continued until 1986.
In It To Win It
Wyche Fowler, who Mr. Lewis had lost to in his 1977 House run, entered and won the race in 1986 for U.S. senator. John ran again, for Atlanta’s 5th Congressional District beating out former fellow SNCC member Julian Bond in a primary run-off, which culminated in his overwhelming victory on Election Day. John Lewis thus began his 33 year career as a U.S. representative, winning in November 16 more times, with no less than 69% of the vote when he had an opponent. In the years 1996, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2014, and 2018, no one even tried to oppose John in the general election.
“Conscience Of Congress”
Of his Congressional service, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that John Lewis was the, “only former major civil rights leader who extended his fight for human rights and racial reconciliation to the halls of Congress.” and said Rep. Lewis was considered by those in Washington to be the, “conscience of Congress”. The Washington Post characterized him as, “a fiercely partisan Democrat but, also fiercely independent”.
History Again In The Making
In the fall of 2007, John originally endorsed Hillary Clinton. John reconsidered, formally promoting Barack Obama at the end of February 2008. When then-Sen. Obama clinched the nomination for Democratic presidential candidate, Rep. Lewis spoke of this historic milestone: “If someone had told me this would be happening now, I would have told them they were crazy, out of their mind, they didn’t know what they were talking about…. I just wish the others were around to see this day…. To the people who were beaten, put in jail, were asked questions (at the polling place) they could never answer (just) to register to vote, it’s amazing.”
“The Dream” Fulfilled?
After Barack’s win, John was quoted, “If you ask me whether the election … is the fulfillment of Dr. King’s dream, I say, ‘No, it’s just a down payment.’ There’s still too many people 50 years later…that are being left out and left behind.” After President Obama was sworn in as the first African-American President of the United States, Rep. Lewis asked Barack to autograph a commemorative photo from the event. The new Leader of the Free World inked his signature with the profound compliment, “Because of you, John. Barack Obama.”
Celebrating Selma
Prior to his death, Rep. Lewis annually commemorated the Selma March by re-enacting the event . The 50th anniversary celebration was particularly poignant. On the right of President Obama, hand in hand with him, with First Lady Michelle Obama on the other side, was Rep. John Lewis, with the President holding the hand of activist Amelia Boynton Robinson in her wheelchair on his left. With many more flanking and following, they crossed the flashpoint bridge, repeating the route of that fateful day. An estimated 40,000 people attended the ceremonies.
End Of The Road
At the end of 2019, John Lewis revealed his diagnosis of stage-IV pancreatic cancer. He took his treatment in D.C., but succumbed to the disease July 17th, 2020 at his home in Atlanta. He was honored by many around the country and from across the world. His first memorial service was held at Troy University July 25th, the school who had denied him entrance 63 years before, followed by services at Selma’s Brown Chapel AME Church, where the activism had originally been coordinated from. On the 26th, his funeral procession, with Rep. Lewis’ body carried on a caisson, crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, retracing the route of Bloody Sunday. He then was moved to lie in state for the first of three times, initially in the Alabama State Capitol.
Honors Earned
Rep. Lewis was the first African-American member of Congress to lie in state in the United States Capitol Rotunda. His body lay in state on July 27th and 28th. But due to the COVID-19 risk the public viewing had to be moved outside onto the East Front steps. His body was then transported to the Georgia State Capitol where he was honored there.
Presidents Turn Out
His funeral service was held at the iconic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. No less than three former Presidents honored him. Barack Obama and Bill Clinton both gave eulogies. President Carter due to his advanced age and the COVID threat sent a statement to be read on his behalf. John Lewis’ legacy lives on in the memory of his refusal to compromise his convictions, nor give up the fight. We all owe him a debt of gratitude in the advancements of the rights of all people. “Because of you, John.”
