Rep. John Lewis: the civil right icon in his own words | USA TODAY

A look at the life of congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis in his own words.
RELATED: John Lewis's impact on civil and voting rights

Lewis, a civil rights icon and longtime member of Congress, died last Friday at the age of 80 after a monthslong battle with cancer.

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30 comments

    1. During the MLKjr time he was active. It’s hard to say how much he did on his own merit. After that he just sat in congress for decades and enriched himself, his family, his cronies and never moved on. He benefited from divisiveness and is responsible in good part to the current craziness the Democratic Party has devolved to.

  1. No one is perfect. Mr. Lewis was the first to vote to impeach President Trump although as we now know in view of the investigation President Trump was innocent of charges. Thus there was a problem in Mr Lewis thinking.

  2. America will never forget and The TRUTH must be told :

    He started off advocating for good causes. But that was decades ago. Lewis’s 5th Congressional District, according to Forbes and many other reliable sources, is the 6th most violent city in America. His district has very high unemployment for black people ( higher than many other places). By all measures, in his over 30 years in Congress, Mr. Lewis has failed miserably to help raise his community out of poverty, failed to stop the consistent violent crimes, failed to bring jobs to his district and failed to improve the lives of children and young adults in his communities. But Lewis has continued to play the race card in Congress, even falsely claiming Andrew Breitbart called him the “N” word at a rally which was proven to be a lie with video recordings and witnesses.

    This old race-baiter as he is well known should have retired out of congress many years ago. He frequently played the race card or victim card throughout his career and actually accomplished very little for his own district in representing the people in his position. He used his title as a civil rights activist icon when it served his purpose and provided him personal attention.

    He was a media darling for the Dems, but not all that much else for all Americans he represented.He spent his whole life keeping the races at each others throat by stirring up crap. His biggest lie was to accuse Trump of “keeping kids in cages” when it was Obama who built those”cages” to house immigrants and keep them protected. But when it served him, just lie about the whole thing. He was NOT a Hero to most Americans.

    Lewis is said to have embraced and praised the B.L.M. movement. Did he even know who ran it or the controversy of some people involved? Whether you are black, white, or otherwise, we as a nation need to explore term limits. As historic significant of a past Lewis may have had, he still enriched himself over his position over 30 years and it’s interesting we look to his past and it’s full of incompetence but when you look at what he did for his state and constituents, it was NOT very impressive or significant, you can hear birds chirping.

    After 30+ years in his district, what was he doing to ensure people kept voting for him? How did he improve his community?. Another Democrat who talked about helping others but only helped his wallet.By the way, Not a single Democrat voted for the civil rights act and that’s a fact.NO R.I.P. for him.Good riddance, please take Maxine Waters with you

    “Lewis was one of the organizers of the March on Washington”. That’s a lie he’s told for 50 years and he tried to destroy anyone who challenged that story. He just happened to be standing in the front of the march in the same frame as MLK for a single photo. He based his entire career off that photo. America doubts Martin L. King even knew who Lewis was.

    He was a White hating Racist who screamed like a whiny Brat whenever people didn’t give him his way in Congress. There was never a time on camera that he wasn’t yelling at or degrading someone. He became a Millionaire while representing one of the poorest Black districts in the country. 1 in 3 of his constituents lived and still live in poverty. The standard of living has steadily fallen and unemployment has steadily risen in his district under his watch for more than 30 years. That is who the Left wants us to mourn.NO R.I.P. for such incompetent dirtbag.ANOTHER REASON FOR TERM LIMITS

    AFTER HIS CIVIL RIGHTS PHOTO NEXT TO M.L.K., HE WENT ON LIKE ALL NEO-LIBERAL DEMOCRATS OF TODAY, to then use race relations as a tool to instigate violence and disruption and lambaste the opposition. He died a disgraced anti-American race-baiting huckster like is friend Al Sharpton and Barack Obama to name just a few—setting race relations back decades in the USA.

  3. At just 23 years of age, as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, John Robert Lewis helped plan the 1963 March on Washington and was a keynote speaker before Dr King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. We are very thankful that the faith that Rev. Martin Luther King and John Robert Lewis had in God and in His written words, the Bible, allowed them to be successful through peaceful means in having all people, regardless of their race or color of their skins, to share the same neighborhoods, the same schools, the same seats when we use public transportation, the same tables to eat when we go to have a meal in a restaurant and the same bathrooms.

    This is our prayer to God: Oh God, we thank you that through peaceful means which do not dishonor the teachings of our Lord Jesus, the USA was able to have the greatest transformation in inter racial relationships without being a threat to any American institution. O dear God we ask your forgiveness that as a nation (59 years ago after John Robert Lewis was released from Parchman Farm Penitentiary after being arrested in Jackson, MS for using a so-called “white” restroom during the Freedom Rides of 1961) today we are using racist slogans such as “black lives matter” instead of “all lives matter.” God we ask your forgiveness because we have forgotten your teachings through our lord Jesus Christ and instead of peaceful protests what we have now is blacks and whites joining together to throw rocks and bottles to the police, robbing, looting, putting on fire buildings, businesses, churches, toppling down public and historic monuments while requesting defunding the police so our streets end up being run by a mob. O God, we thank you for your great wisdom because we are sure that it is the fear of COVID-19 which is going to prevent the November presidential election to become a violent street fight between anti-Trump and pro-Trump supporters. God give us your Spirit so we could do better than that. Give us your Spirit so in the same way we teach our kids to honor their father and their mother we could teach them to be respectful attitude to the police hired with own tax paid money to protect our community.

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