A Tribute to an Icon: 92Y Honors the Memory of Representative John Lewis

By Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein

There is a photograph of John Lewis, taken in March, 1965, at the front of five hundred marchers coming over the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, head high, walking straight into what he knew was the eye of the storm. State troopers were prepared — and indeed ordered — to attack the marchers on that bloody Sunday. There’s another photograph of him from the same time, prayerful in a defiant and yet quiet posture of non-violence, portraying in that single frame the movement which transformed the sensitivities of a nation — prompting it to understand the need for, and to pass, voting rights legislation. In that photograph, we could see him embodying the best of human and social values.

John Lewis became a symbol of the civil rights movement at an age when most young people have far more frivolous matters on their minds. Born of sharecroppers outside of Troy, Alabama, he attended segregated public schools in Pike County, Alabama, and went on to receive a Bachelors of Art and Religion and Philosophy from Fisk University. He then graduated from the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee. Indeed, he was a man of faith.

Still too young for us to consider him the father of a movement, we are certainly comfortable in introducing him as a primary shaper of a movement. He was in the 1961 Freedom Rides. He organized sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in Nashville. He coordinated voter registration drives and community action programs during the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. He chaired the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. He was a planner and keynote speaker (and some consider him the second most important speaker) at the 1963 March on Washington.

He lived a life filled with vision, service and leadership. In 1977, John Lewis was appointed by President Carter to direct more than 250,000 Volunteers of Action, our federal volunteer agency. He was elected to the Atlanta City Council in 1981 and to Congress in 1986 and served as the US Representative of Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District until his passing this week.

When John Lewis was given the prestigious 1999 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award in Hyde Park, he was described as one of the most able and respected members of Congress. But what I found to be even more telling about Representative Lewis is what he said in accepting the award. In talking about President Roosevelt, John Lewis said, “That that man loved our nation. He tapped our deepest hopes. He stood tall and never wavered from principle.” Then John Lewis went on to say, “I hope this medal will inspire others and especially young people to make our nation a better place for everyone to express themselves by standing up, by speaking out and by speaking up.”

John Lewis was a man who loved our nation, a man who tapped our deepest hopes, a man who himself stood tall and did not ever waver from principle; this man who has always inspired us, and continues to inspire us to be better people, who stood up, who spoke out, who spoke up and who was a hero in every way, as he helped us advance the promise.

At a young age, John Lewis led us across the bridge in Selma, finally bringing us to civil rights and electoral reform. He didn’t stop. And neither should we. There are more bridges to cross, more rights to confirm, and a better tomorrow for this nation.

On June 15, 1999, John Lewis spoke at a program entitled “Advancing the Promise: Honoring the Legacy of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner,” the Mississippi civil rights workers who were murdered in 1964. He said: “James Chaney, Andy Goodman and Mickey Schwerner held down the house. They never left the house. As Blacks and Jews, we must never ever leave the house. We must stay together. We must hold hands and stay together. There’s not any room in our society, in our community, for racism, for bigotry, for anti-Semitism. We must walk together. We must keep the faith and we must keep our eyes on the prize if we're going to be true to the legacy, to the memory of James Chaney, Andy Goodman and Mickey Schwerner.”

Let the memory of John Lewis be a beacon lighting the way to greater equality.