John Lewis

By in Human Rights, Leadership

john lewis

“If you’re not hopeful and optimistic, then you just give up. You have to take the long hard look and just believe that if you’re consistent, you will succeed.”

John Lewis is a member of the U.S House of Representatives representing Georgia’s 5th district. He is the only living “big six” leader of the Black Civil Rights movement which consisted of Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, John Lewis, A. Phillip Randolph, Roy Wilkins and Whitney Young. I admire John Lewis’ courage in the civil rights movement as he was leading the SNCC movement through the freedom rides, specifically when he encouraged the SNCC students that were dropped off in Klan territory to keep going and afterwards stating “we had a mandate, a moral obligation” (Lewis, 151). John Lewis had a great impact on the conception of the American Dream by making it achievable for all races in his pursuit for equal rights for African Americans.

John Robert Lewis was born on February 21, 1940 in Troy, Alabama into a family of sharecroppers.  Lewis had to work hard as a child to help his parents as sharecroppers, but he had a happy childhood and this helped develop his work ethic that he would help later in life. Around this time African Americans were not considered to be equal to whites and this could clearly be seen in the workplace and in the educational system. Lewis was very aware of this segregation of races from an early age. He would listen to the Sermons of Martin Luther King Jr. during the Montgomery bus boycott and this encouraged him to take action to see America as a desegregated nation.

The Sit-ins:

The year of 1960 was the start of a new decade for America. There were no major crisis as the McCarthy era was over with and the economy was booming. It looked like the near future was going to be bright even though problems were looming in Cuba and Vietnam. Still, forces were gathering to fight segregation. Many students took crash courses in non-violent action and would soon take part in the sit-ins. The sit-ins were the first non-violent acts to fight against segregation in the black civil rights movement. The sit-ins consisted of white and black college students sitting at segregated lunch counters for whites only. The students were well-dressed, well-behaved and remained non-violent no matter the circumstance. The instructions were clear: “No aggression. No retaliation. No loud conversation, no talking of any kind with anyone other than ourselves. Dress nicely. Bring books, schoolwork, letter writing materials. No napping. No getting up, except to go the bathroom…” (Lewis, 93). These students knew exactly what was expected of them and they were ready to go to jail, if necessary. They were ready to put a stop to segregation and show that African Americans were worthy of the same respect that whites received. The sit-ins were John Lewis’ first hands on interaction with the black civil rights movement but was prior to that very involved in the non-violent training sessions for black and white students.

John Lewis would become a big part of the sit-in movement and later on the Freedom Rides. He was appointed as one of the minor leaders to lead the first sit-in actions. When speaking about the point of the sit-in movement, John Lewis said:

We wanted them to see us.  We planned each sit-in to begin around lunchtime because we wanted people to be there when we arrived. We wanted white people, everyday customers to be exposed to us, to see us as we were, not as something in their minds, in their imaginations. We wanted them to watch how we responded to the people who refused to serve us. And we wanted them to watch those people as well. Among so many other things, this was about education, pricking consciences, teaching one race about another, and, if need be, about itself (Lewis, 97).

John Lewis was very aware that the sit-in movement was about more than just getting desegregated lunch counters. The sit-in movement was “Among so many other things, this was about education, pricking consciences, teaching one race about another, and, if need be, about itself”. He knew that this was the beginning of a new era where the black civil rights movement would not only be fighting for desegregated lunch counters, but for things such as voting rights, equality in the workplace, and equality in the educational system. He shared the mentality of Ella Baker as she gave her famous “More Than a Hamburger” speech where she encouraged the sit-in movement to do just this. This speech was given after a victorious sit-in movement and on May 10, 1960 the stores they had been sitting in served food to black customers in the city’s history.

The Freedom Rides:

In 1960, shortly after Ella Baker’s “More Than a Hamburger” speech, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded. John Lewis was one of the founders of the SNCC movement and it would be focusing on forcing the issue of segregation on the government. The Federal Government and John F. Kennedy had taken the side of the SNCC movement to some extent. President Kennedy believed that the issue of segregation should be taken care of but he faced great opposition from white southerners and feared losing their votes. For this reason government involvement was limited in the civil rights movement. To force the issue on the government, the Freedom Rides were created.

A little known fact is that the Freedom Rides of 1961 was not the first Non-Violent act of its kind to fight against segregation. The Freedom Rides were actually modeled after The Journey of Reconciliation that took place in 1947. During World War 2, a few African Americans tried to challenge the Jim Crow transportation laws by occupying accommodations for whites. Then in 1947 the Journey of Reconciliation started with the same purpose as the freedom rides: “to test compliance with the Supreme Court decisions on segregation in interstate transportation by using interracial teams to travel on Greyhound and Trailways buses and deliberately violate the state segregation laws” (Meier, 213). The Freedom Rides and the Journey of Reconciliation were different in the sense that the Journey of Reconciliation did not involve many people and only operated in four upper states in the South whereas the Freedom Rides involved hundreds of people and operated in the heart of the South.

 The Freedom Rides were created, as previously stated, to challenge the Supreme Court decisions in segregation in interstate transportation and, by doing this, forcing the government to intervene more. It was going to take a lot of casualties before the government would intervene. Even though the Freedom Rides were very bloody and many students were killed in cold-blood, John Lewis was always on the front lines. He showed great leadership skills as he, even though being a prominent leader in the civil rights movement, never asked any of his followers to do anything that he would not be a part of himself. An example of this is when the Freedom Riders chose to travel to Montgomery,  Alabama after being dropped off in Klan territory after being imprisoned because they traveled to Birmingham. They were met by a mob of people that instantly started beating the freedom riders up with all sorts of weapons. Many freedom riders were killed and John Lewis was knocked unconscious when a wooden Coca-Cola crate was swung towards his head. John Lewis took a lot of damage to the head but this never once made him think about giving up on the cause that he was fighting for. 

Bloody Sunday:

Another one of John Lewis’ great moments as a leader was in 1965 when the black civil rights movement was fighting heavily for voting rights. John Lewis, along with Hosea Williams, led a march from Selma, Alabama to the state capitol Montgomery where 600 people marched to protest. The marchers were met by Alabama state troopers and many people were severely injured or killed. John Lewis escaped with a fractured skull. This incident would later be known as “Bloody Sunday”. Once again, John Lewis showed his relentless drive for justice and equality. 

John Lewis speaks about “Bloody Sunday”:

John Lewis in Congress:

John Lewis has always been politically active throughout his life, from his fight against politics in the civil rights movement to becoming a part of Congress later on in his life. In 1981 he was selected to the Atlanta City Council and was in 1986 selected to Congress representing Georgia’s 5th district. During his time in Congress he has received numerous awards for his great leadership. Some of these awards are the Martin Luther King, Jr. Non-Violent Peace Prize, the NAACP Spingarn Medal, and the greatest of them all, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Even though John Lewis has in some sense “made it” in accomplishing great things such as being elected for Congress, he has not become complacent and still fights for Human Rights. In 2009, he was arrested with three other U.S. Representatives for protesting against the obstruction of aid to refugees in Darfur outside of the Embassy of Sudan. This goes to show how he keeps fighting for human rights even now when he has much more to lose.

Conclusion:

John Lewis has through his relentless drive for equality and justice for all races changed an entire nation. He has changed the perception of the American Dream for thousands of Americans, not only by fighting for African American rights in the civil rights movement but also by being elected to Congress and being a living testimony that through persistence and hard work any dream can be achieved. His leadership throughout his life has been outstanding as he has always been on the front lines of everything he has ever done, especially during the civil rights movement where he was recognized as one of the “big six” leaders. I chose John Lewis’ quote: “If you’re not hopeful and optimistic, then you just give up. You have to take the long hard look and just believe that if you’re consistent, you will succeed” because it summarizes his style of leadership and it inspires me to do the same. I can only hope to one day master the leadership skills that John Lewis has.

 

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