EDITOR’s NOTE: We are going to continue to celebrate the ethnic diversity that’s the United State of America … Here’s more about the heroes of history in the U.S.A.
By Jim Heffernan
I’m not sure the figure in the foreground of this picture is John Lewis, but I think it is. He was there and his skull was fractured that day by a state trooper night stick.
John Lewis was born near Troy, Alabama, the third of ten children. He always wanted to be a preacher and at age 5 would preach to his chickens. If a chicken died, he would preside at its funeral. At age 6 he had seen two white people in his life.
He described his early education, “I had a wonderful teacher in elementary school, and she told me ‘read my child, read!’ And I tried to read everything. I loved books. I remember in 1956, when I was 16 years old, with some of my brothers and sisters and cousins, going down to the public library, trying to get a library card, and we were told the library was for whites only and not for coloreds.”
After high school, he was denied admission to Troy University and ended up going to the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was ordained as a Baptist minister. He then earned a bachelor’s degree in religion and philosophy from Fisk University.
As a student he was active in civil demonstrations. He took part in the Nashville sit-ins that led to the de-segregation of lunch counters in that city. He was one of the original “Freedom Riders”. All his life, he sought out “good trouble”. By 1963, he had been arrested 24 times. He was arrested in 2006 and 2009 at demonstrations while he was a congressman.
He was a city council member in Atlanta for five years and was elected as a representative in 1988. He was re-elected 17 times and was noted for the courageous stands he took throughout his time in the House. Among them were opposing the Gulf War and the Iraq War.
Shortly before he died in 2020, he wrote an essay to be read on the day of his funeral. I’ll close with that essay.
“While my time here has now come to an end, I want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life you inspired me. You filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great American story when you used your power to make a difference in our society. Millions of people motivated simply by human compassion laid down the burdens of division. Around the country and the world you set aside race, class, age, language and nationality to demand respect for human dignity.
That is why I had to visit Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, though I was admitted to the hospital the following day. I just had to see and feel it for myself that, after many years of silent witness, the truth is still marching on.
Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor. He was 14 when he was killed, and I was only 15 years old at the time. I will never ever forget the moment when it became so clear that he could easily have been me. In those days, fear constrained us like an imaginary prison, and troubling thoughts of potential brutality committed for no understandable reason were the bars.
Though I was surrounded by two loving parents, plenty of brothers, sisters and cousins, their love could not protect me from the unholy oppression waiting just outside that family circle. Unchecked, unrestrained violence and government-sanctioned terror had the power to turn a simple stroll to the store for some Skittles or an innocent morning jog down a lonesome country road into a nightmare. If we are to survive as one unified nation, we must discover what so readily takes root in our hearts that could rob Mother Emanuel Church in South Carolina of her brightest and best, shoot unwitting concertgoers in Las Vegas and choke to death the hopes and dreams of a gifted violinist like Elijah McClain.
Like so many young people today, I was searching for a way out, or some might say a way in, and then I heard the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on an old radio. He was talking about the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. He said we are all complicit when we tolerate injustice. He said it is not enough to say it will get better by and by. He said each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.
Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.
You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, through decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time. Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.
Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.
When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war. So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.”
This series of 4 profiles of prominent black figures who powered our march to freedom for all has been very inspiring for me. I knew their names, but I did not know their stories. I did not know the depths of their suffering and the obstacles they overcame.
We should borrow from their example. We need their courage and determination for the times we face today. Powerful forces are calling on us to be complicit in our own enslavement. We must resist. We must vote.
As always, discussion welcome at codger817@gmail.com
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