Tribute to John Lewis

“My philosophy is very simple.  When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just; say something, do something, get in trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble.”

An Alabama sharecropper’s son and the leader of the non-violent civil movement in the historic struggle for racial equality, who later carried the mantle of moral authority into Congress, Representative John Lewis breathed his last on Friday. He was 80.

Mr. Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, announced on December 29 that he had been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer and vowed to fight it with the same passion with which he had battled racial injustice. “I have been in some kind of fight — for freedom, equality, basic human rights — for nearly my entire life,” he said.

He was the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and was recognised as one of the "Big Six" leaders of the civil rights movement along with Martin Luther King Jr, who organized the 1963 March on Washington. The televised pictures of Mr. Lewis being beaten up scandalized the nation and eventually paved the way for voting rights of blacks.

More than a half-century later, after the killing of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Mr. Lewis welcomed the resulting global demonstrations against police killings of Black people and, more broadly, against systemic racism in many corners of society. He saw those protests as a continuation of his life’s work, though his illness had left him to watch from the sidelines.

His rise from a cotton picker in the fields of Alabama to a representative in Congress has inspired many colored people to aspire leadership roles to bring about change. He gave them the blueprint to organize and legislate.

His departure comes at a time when the world is polarized in a renewed civil right movement for equality and justice. When the light dims and the world is careening towards violence and intolerance, it would be wise to be directed by Mr. Lewis’ words, “we will march with the spirit of love and with the spirit of dignity that we have shown here today.”

Thank you, Congressman John Lewis. Rest in peace!