[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 132 (Monday, July 27, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E683-E684]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING THE LIFE OF JOHN LEWIS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 27, 2020

  Ms. ESHOO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay homage to John Robert 
Lewis and his remarkable life as we mourn his passing on July 17th.
  John Lewis was my trusted friend and colleague and his passing leaves 
me, my colleagues, and our entire nation with an aching sadness. He was 
an icon, the tireless champion for justice, equality, civil rights, and 
human rights. He fought for the most vulnerable in our society and 
never stopped working to perfect our union.
  John Lewis shaped the course of history in America. Profoundly moved 
by the Montgomery bus boycott as a young man which he said ``changed my 
life more than any other event before or since,'' he threw his mind and 
body into the civil rights movement to advocate for equal access to 
jobs, housing, education, health care, public accommodations, and 
voting rights.
  John recognized at a young age the transformative power of knowledge 
and education to build a better life and a better world for himself and 
others. He loved school and vividly remembered the hope he felt after 
the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education requiring 
public schools to desegregate. He dreamed of attending Troy State 
University and first met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1958 when he 
attempted to desegregate the university. He would remain a fearless 
advocate of Dr. King's Beloved Community for the rest of his life.
  John was a man of extraordinary faith . . . faith in God, faith in 
the country he loved and served with passion, and faith in the inherent 
goodness in all of us. He began preaching at a young age and after 
graduating high school he enrolled in the American Baptist Theological 
Seminary in Nashville and was ordained a Baptist minister. While in 
Nashville, he was introduced to the concept of civil disobedience and 
``redemptive suffering'' and helped organize sit-ins to desegregate 
public accommodations. His efforts served as a catalyst for Nashville 
to become the first southern city to integrate its lunch counters.
  John went on to become a founding member of the Student Nonviolent 
Coordinating

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Committee and once again demonstrated his courage by becoming one of 
the 13 original Freedom Riders, allowing himself to be beaten and 
jailed in pursuit of justice while remaining true to nonviolence. He 
was one of the `Big Six' who helped organize the March on Washington 
for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 and pushed the Kennedy Administration to 
take up the cause of civil rights.
  John Lewis revered the sanctity of the right to vote and he was 
willing to die for it. He was at the vanguard of the struggle for equal 
voting rights and made history during the Selma to Montgomery marches 
when he led activists across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and was savagely 
beaten during `Bloody Sunday.' Eight days later, President Lyndon 
Johnson addressed a Joint Session of Congress to call for the passage 
of the Voting Rights Act which would be signed into law within five 
months.
  John Lewis continued his fight for justice during his entire service 
of over 30 years in the House of Representatives where he championed 
equal education, affordable health care, gun control, economic 
opportunity and equal rights, I'm enormously proud and deeply grateful 
to have served with him and I will always treasure our time together as 
colleagues.
  As a Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on the Deadliest Cancers, I 
will offer an amendment next week to increase funding for Pancreatic 
Cancer research, the disease that claimed John, in loving memory of 
him. John Lewis was the living embodiment of courage and conviction, 
and a hero to tens of millions of Americans. He was a humble and kind 
man who served the public with honesty and integrity. He was a holy man 
who worked every day to perfect our union and now he is perfecting 
heaven where he was welcomed by Dr. King. Future generations will be 
inspired by his faith, his courage, and his vision of equality for all 
God's children which has strengthened and bettered the nation he so 
loved.

                          ____________________