Published On: 07.18.20 | 

By: Alabama News Center Staff

Alabama native John Lewis’ life and legacy celebrated

Alabama native Rep. John Lewis speaks after receiving the Drum Major Award at the fourth annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration and Realizing the Dream Awards event on Jan. 18, 2009 in Washington, D.C. (David McNew/Getty Images)

An outpouring of tributes from Alabamians celebrated the life and legacy of native son John Lewis, who represented Georgia’s 5th Congressional District and died Friday at the age of 80.

Lewis was born in 1940 outside Troy in Pike County to sharecropping parents. He carved out  legendary civil rights status as a Freedom Rider, as the youngest speaker at age 23 at the 1963 March on Washington, and on Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965 on “Bloody Sunday,” where white law officers beat Lewis and other peaceful protesters, breaking his skull and injuring dozens of others.

“Our country has lost one of its most beloved Civil Rights leaders,” Gov. Kay Ivey tweeted. “I join my fellow Alabamians & the nation in mourning the death of Rep. John Lewis. He dedicated his life to serving his community & advocating for others. We’ll forever remember his heroism & his enduring legacy.”

Alabama U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, whose district includes Selma, said in a tweet: “My heart breaks on the passing of my dear friend and mentor @repjohnlewis but my spirit soars for an angel walked among us and we were all touched by his greatness! He forever changed Selma and this nation. May we finish his life’s work and restore the VRA! #ripjohnlewis”

On Facebook, Selma Mayor Darrio Melton wrote, “Tonight we mourn and salute one of the greatest leaders America has known, Congressman John Lewis.”

Alabama native Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, tweeted that Lewis is an American hero.

“John Lewis guided us toward a more righteous world. He marched in Selma, he marched on Washington — he marched for us all. His life’s work shaped our history and his legacy inspires us to continue the march for racial equity and justice.”

Lewis, battling pancreatic cancer, made a surprise visit to Selma in March to this year’s “Bloody Sunday” commemorative march and made an impassioned plea for voting “as a nonviolent instrument … to redeem the soul of America.”

Lewis died Friday hours after the Rev. C.T. Vivian, a key adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died in Atlanta at the age of 95. Vivian in 1965 worked to register Black voters in Selma and was confronted by segregationist Sheriff Jim Clark, who punched him in the mouth, knocking him to the ground. Vivian’s efforts helped spark the “Bloody Sunday” voting rights march and a later, larger, successful march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to Montgomery.

University of South Alabama writer in residence Frye Gaillard mourned the loss of both men.

“In the past two days, we have lost two icons of the civil rights movement. Most people know John Lewis, as they should: former Freedom Rider, leader of the Bloody Sunday march, Alabama native, member of Congress. Also one of the bravest, gentlest people ever to walk. His friend, CT Vivian, was a little older, a little more fiery than John, but like Lewis he was resolutely nonviolent,” Gaillard, who wrote “Cradle of Freedom” about Lewis and other civil rights leaders, posted on Facebook. “I remember the video from ‘Eyes on the Prize’ of Vivian confronting Sheriff Jim Clark on the courthouse steps in Selma, preaching to him about justice and the right to vote. Clark turned suddenly and hit Vivian in the mouth. The force of the blow broke Clark’s hand and knocked Vivian down the steps. Vivian arose, bloody, and continued to preach, picking up almost in mid-sentence.”

The University of Alabama’s Black Faculty and Staff Association on Instagram noted the loss of both civil rights icons. “We mourn the passing of these two champions of social justice and equity: Rep. John Lewis and the Rev. C.T. Vivian. Rest in Peace and Rise in Glory.”

In Montgomery, the Equal Justice Initiative tweeted a photo of Lewis at EJI’s Memorial for Peace and Justice and said, “EJI mourns the loss of our friend and champion John Lewis.”

Alabama U.S. Sen. Doug Jones tweeted a photo of himself and his wife, Louise, with Lewis on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. “Louise and I are heartbroken. Rev. C.T. Vivian passing earlier today and now our dear friend John Lewis. So much to say, but that will have to wait. For the moment I am so sad and simply have no words.”

Jones’ opponent in November, Republican U.S. Senate nominee Tommy Tuberville, tweeted that Lewis was “a civil rights icon who understood the power of peaceful protest to bring about social change. He dedicated his life toward working to fulfill Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream of a colorblind society that allows each person to excel as far as their God-given talents can take them. He served his nation, his district, and humankind well. Godspeed, Congressman Lewis.”

Jamey Johnson and Jason Isbell, music artists from Alabama, both took to Twitter to pay respects to Lewis.

In March last year, Lewis led 45 members of Congress to visit sites in Alabama of significance to civil rights. The 2019 Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage was organized by the nonprofit Faith & Politics Institute, which offers tours, retreats, forums and reflection groups to members of Congress and their staffs.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis speaks from the heart to ‘Four Little Girls’ cast at 16th Street Baptist Church from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

Last year’s visit included a stop at the 16th Street Baptist Church, where students from Montgomery Public Schools and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival performed parts of “Four Little Girls.” The production portrays the lives of 16th Street Baptist Church bombing victims Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia D. Morris Wesley and Addie Mae Collins before that tragic day in September 1963 and imagines the impact they would have made in the world if their lives hadn’t been cut short.

Lewis was so moved by the production that he spoke afterwards.

Alabama Power CEO Mark Crosswhite in a statement Saturday noted that Lewis’ impact was international.

“We are saddened by the passing of U.S. Rep. John Lewis. Rep. Lewis was an iconic leader in the civil rights movement and dedicated his life to fighting for racial equality and human rights. While his journey began here in Alabama, he left an impact throughout the world,’’ he said. “We will continue to honor his legacy by working to end racism and build communities where all people are valued, respected and treated fairly.”

John Lewis speaking at a meeting of American Society of Newspaper Editors, Statler Hilton Hotel, Washington, D.C., 1964. (Photograph by Marion S. Trikosko, U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)
Aerial view of marchers, from the Lincoln Monument to the Washington Monument, at the March on Washington, 1963. (Photograph by Thomas O’Halloran, U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)
John Lewis, leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, was struck on the head by a state trooper during an attempt to march on the state Capitol in Montgomery in March 1965. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, Courtesy of Library of Congress)
The burning Greyhound bus pictured here carried Freedom Riders into Anniston on May 14, 1961, as part of an effort to test a newly enacted integration law regarding bus stations in the South. After the riders were attacked at the station in Anniston, the bus was firebombed after breaking down several miles outside the city. Many of the riders were beaten, with several being severely injured, by a white mob as they departed the bus. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, Birmingham Public Library Archives)
Freedom Riders, from left, John Lewis, Charles Butler, Catherine Burks Brooks, Lucretia Collins, and Salynn McCollum sit on a bench in the Birmingham Greyhound station on May 17, 1961. Soon after the photo was taken, the group was arrested and later released in a rural all-white area on the orders of Birmingham commissioner of public safety Eugene “Bull” Connor. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, Courtesy of The Birmingham News. All rights reserved. Used with permission)

On Instagram, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin posted a photograph of the two of them together. “Make good trouble. Necessary trouble. Seek justice. Rep. John Lewis, the conscience of Black America, has already given us our marching orders. It’s our duty to press onward. Rest well, hero.”

“John Lewis: Good Trouble” is the name of a documentary about him released just two weeks before his death.

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, which recorded an oral history by Lewis, also cited “good trouble” as it mourned his loss.

“He challenged us to get in good trouble, and we must heed his call. There’s so much work to be done and we will continue the fight to bring about racial justice in his spirit,” said Denise Gilmore, BCI’s special director of transition.

“John Lewis received the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Award in 2005 for his life’s work of nonviolent change and leadership in the civil rights movement. He was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge so that we could have the right to vote,” she said in a statement. “We must honor his legacy by voting on November 3rd and be the change that we want to see. We are forever grateful for John Lewis and his unselfish dedication to civil rights.”

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