[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 130 (Thursday, July 23, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H3696]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING REPRESENTATIVE JOHN LEWIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Adams) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. ADAMS. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in honor of our colleague, my 
friend, John Lewis.
  Everything John Lewis did was in the service of justice--a 
courageous, compassionate man who gave everything, including his blood 
and his body, to the civil rights movement.
  From the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma to the floor of the House of 
Representatives, John was never afraid to put it on the line, 
everything, for what he believed in.
  John was many things: a fighter, a leader, one of the ``Big Six,'' an 
HBCU graduate, a ``good trouble'' maker.
  He was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and over 50 
honorary degrees, from Portland State University in Oregon to Bates 
College in Maine, and yet he was always humble.
  Many have called him a hero, a living legend, but most of us here 
just knew him as John, our colleague, our friend. It was an amazing 
privilege to serve in Congress with John Lewis.
  John was not only a leader of the civil rights movement, he was a 
modern-day Founding Father. Because, while the Founding Fathers assured 
us that ``all men are created equal,'' it was the sweat and the blood 
and the sacrifice of people like Congressman John Robert Lewis that 
made that assurance true, that made our Nation more perfect and made 
our form of government turn towards justice.
  John Lewis earned the respect of men, women, and little children, and 
he made our world and our community and our Nation much better than he 
found it.
  My prayers are with his family and every seeker of justice who mourns 
him today.
  Thank you, brother Lewis. Thank you.
  Rest in peace.

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