[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 127 (Monday, July 20, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4251-S4252]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         REMEMBERING JOHN LEWIS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on Friday, the Nation lost a monumental 
figure, someone who made huge personal sacrifices to help our Nation 
move past the sin of racism and align more with the principles of our 
founding.
  John Lewis had secured his place among the giants of American history 
before his career in Congress had even begun. From a sharecropper's 
farm with no electricity or running water,   John Lewis rose to share 
the stage with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as a founding leader of the 
mid-century civil rights movement. His unwavering example of nonviolent 
resistance became a powerful rallying cry, swelling the ranks of 
marches and sit-ins and commanding the attention of the Nation.
  As a young student, John demonstrated wisdom beyond his years and 
unimaginable patience and dignity in the face of harassment and brutal 
assaults from the champions of segregation. From boycotts and sit-ins 
to Bloody Sunday in Selma, he suffered, and suffered, and suffered. But 
he kept working. He was unshaken in the belief that our Nation could do 
better, and he was willing to pay for that progress with his own blood.
  The cause of justice called John Lewis to the vanguard--from 
organizing the lunch counter sit-ins that made Nashville the first 
southern city to begin desegregating public places to leading the first 
historic Freedom Riders across the South, to chairing the Student 
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee that helped mobilize a generation, to 
addressing the March on Washington from the Lincoln Memorial. By the 
time he turned 25, John had already lent his voice and his body to a 
full lifetime's work. But he wasn't finished yet.
  That same spirit of urgency followed him here to Washington. Whether 
the day's issues found you on his side of the policy debate or on the 
opposite side, his warmth, friendliness, and dedication to his 
neighbors in Georgia's Fifth District made an impact on everyone.
  I am reminded particularly of joining hands with him at a ceremony 
here in the Capitol honoring his friend, Dr. King, in 2008. As Members 
of Congress sang ``We Shall Overcome,'' it was humbling to reflect on 
what the man standing next to me had suffered and sacrificed so that 
those words could be sung, at such an occasion, in that place.

[[Page S4252]]

  The memory of our colleague brings to mind Dr. King's own words. He 
famously said: ``The arc of the moral universe is long, and it bends 
toward justice.''
  It would be a mistake to read those words and assume that he meant 
this bending is inevitable. Our society has only marched toward justice 
because great figures like Congressman   John Lewis took it upon 
themselves to lead the way. The Nation mourns his passing, and we 
celebrate the life of this American hero.

                          ____________________