[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 135 (Thursday, July 30, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S4625]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Remembering  John Lewis

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, on February 21, 1940, John Lewis was 
born in Troy, AL--a son of sharecroppers, born to be a person to bring 
good trouble to the Nation. He grew up on his family's farm and 
attended segregated public schools in Pike County, AL.
  As a young boy, he was inspired by the activism that surrounded him--
the Montgomery bus boycott and the works of a leader name Rev. Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Jr. He attended Fisk University, and he organized 
sit-in demonstrations in segregated lunch counters in Nashville, TN.
  In 1961, he started participating in the Freedom Rides. He was just a 
young man. He would get on board a segregated bus, and he would dare to 
sit in the ``Whites Only'' area just to make a simple statement--that 
any person of any race should be able to sit anywhere they choose to 
sit in America, and it would be OK. He literally risked his life just 
riding on a bus in the wrong seat.
  He became best known in 1963 when he helped to organize the March on 
Washington. He was part of what they called the Big Six in the civil 
rights movement. He was nationally recognized. We lose track of the 
fact that in 1963 he was one of the keynote speakers in the March on 
Washington. He stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial at 23 years old.
  His focus on nonviolent protests, his focus on training people on how 
to speak out for what is just and for what is right, his focus on 
challenging people to rethink justice and to be able to see all people 
as being created in the image of God, all people equal, was a message 
that our Nation needed to hear and was a message he delivered over and 
over again. From his youngest days, he brought good trouble, as he 
said, to our Nation to awaken us.
  He led 600 peaceful, orderly protesters across the Edmund Pettus 
Bridge in Selma, AL, on March 7, 1965. They were going to march from 
Selma to Montgomery to demonstrate the need for voting rights changes 
in the State of Alabama, but Alabama State Troopers met them there in 
what is known as Bloody Sunday. He and other peaceful protesters, 
simply marching, were attacked and beaten for doing what is just.
  It was a telling thing to see John Lewis's body this past week cross 
that historic bridge one last time, and as he crossed, to have Alabama 
State Troopers stand on the bridge and salute his body as it went by 
because John Lewis brought change to America.
   John Lewis was elected to Congress in 1986 in Georgia's Fifth 
Congressional District, where he served faithfully. He was 
affectionately known as being the conscience of the Congress.
  He was trained in religious teachings. He had a theological degree. 
He was often called ``the reverend.'' He never lost track of his faith. 
He treated people with respect. Even people he disagreed with and voted 
differently from, he would treat them with respect in a way that would 
honor God and honor them and honor his own family.
  What is interesting, some of the statements John Lewis has made over 
the years always struck me. His quiet demeanor and his stern way of 
addressing justice always came back to his faith. A statement he made 
in 2004 really sticks with me. He said:

       I'm deeply concerned that many people today fail to realize 
     that the movement was built on deep-seated religious 
     convictions, and the movement grew out of a sense of faith--
     faith in God and faith in one's fellow human beings.
       Many of us who were participants in this movement saw our 
     involvement as an extension of our faith.

  He said:

       We saw ourselves doing the work of the Almighty. 
     Segregation and racial discrimination were not in keeping 
     with our faith, and so we had to do something.

  And he did.
  Representative Lewis left a long legacy as a civil rights leader. He 
will not be forgotten in our Nation. The Big Six leaders made 
significant changes. I think about those changes he saw just in his 
lifetime and the changes that he, personally, was engaged in making in 
our Nation. Representative Lewis once made the statement: ``When people 
tell me nothing has changed, I tell them, come walk in my shoes and I 
will show you change'' because Representative Lewis, just in his 
lifetime, in the battles he fought, led, and changed, changed 
segregated schools in America; took away segregated water fountains in 
America; took away segregated movie theaters in America; took away 
segregated public transport in America; changed how people applied for 
jobs, got jobs, enjoyed their jobs; changed the opportunities for a 
person being able to live wherever they wanted to live in America; 
changed even how we vote in giving equal access for every American to 
be able to get to the ballot and vote. That is just in John Lewis's 
lifetime. He left a legacy of change.
  His nonviolent protests, his training in leading people, stands in 
stark contrast to what I see some people who call it protests are doing 
right now. When I see what is happening right now in Portland every 
night and watching individuals gear up and literally attacking Federal 
law enforcement, throwing Molotov cocktails at them, pointing laser 
pointers at their eyes, shooting large-scale fireworks at them, trying 
to set a building on fire--when I watch that and those individuals 
trying to say they are protesting for justice--they are not protesting 
for what is just. John Lewis was protesting for what is just.
   John Lewis made the change in America, led a Nation and led a 
generation, even as a young 23-year-old man, to do the right thing in 
the right way. The change that he brought is a gift to the generations 
for millennia in our Nation.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska