Rep. Lewis Recounts Civil Rights Movement

In the 1960s, Rep. John R. Lewis (D-Ga.) was arrested, jailed, beaten and left for dead.

One of the foremost leaders of the Civil Rights movement, he is now a well-respected lawmaker in the U.S. Congress.

Last night Lewis spoke passionately before a packed ARCO Forum about his experiences in the ongoing fight for equal rights.

"Thunder may roll, lightning may flash, the wind may blow, but we must never leave the American house. This is our house," he said.

During the Civil Rights movement, Lewis served as president of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), was one of the original 13 Freedom Riders, demonstrated alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and is the only surviving speaker from the 1965 March on Washington.

He is now promoting his recent book, Walking in the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement.

Lewis began his address by talking about his childhood as the son of sharecroppers in southeast Alabama, 50 miles outside of Montgomery.

"As a young child I tasted the bitter fruit of segregation. I felt the sting of discrimination," he said.

Lewis spoke of being turned away from a public library as a 10-year-old boy, simply because he was black. As part of his book-signing tour, Lewis returned to the library earlier this year, 48 years later, and was finally presented with a library card.

"We've come a distance. We've made progress," he said.

Lewis' involvement in the Civil Rights movement began in 1958, when he was attending college in Nashville. A student of the non-violent philosophy of Mohandas K. Gandhi and his idol King, Lewis helped start a sit-in campaign to protest segregated restaurant counters that would spread across the entire South.

"People would come in and put out lighted cigarettes in our hair and down our back, pour hot water on us and try to pull us off our stools," he said. "But we didn't fight back. Non-violence became a way of life for us."

"By sitting down, by sitting in, we were standing up for the very best in American tradition," Lewis added.

Lewis also spoke about his experiences as a Freedom Rider, a movement in which he and his colleagues set out to test the ban on segregated public transportation throughout the South.

During the ride, Lewis was harassed, arrested and jailed, and gained a deeper understanding of the obstacles facing the South's black voters.

"Black teachers, black lawyers, black doctors, were told they couldn't read and write well enough to vote," he said.

The struggle for voting rights came to a headearly in 1965, in Selma, Ala., in an event thatcame to be known as "Bloody Sunday."

Lewis helped organize an "orderly, silent,peaceful" march from Selma to Montgomery by 600people, primarily elderly men and women, he said.

The marchers departed from the parking lot of achurch and proceeded across a bridge. At the otherside Alabama state troopers were waiting.

"They beat us with nightsticks and bullwhipsand threw tear gas," Lewis said.

Lewis was hit on the head by a nightstick.

"I thought I was going to die. I saw death, andI stared him down," he said.

Lewis suffered a concussion, but the movementprevailed. Two weeks later, more than 35,000people marched into Montgomery, and later thatyear Congress passed the Voting Rights Act.

Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, public serviceprofessor of jurisprudence at the Kennedy Schoolof Government (KSG), introduced Lewis after aperformance by the Kuumba Singers.

"On my list of heroes, whether from the 18th,19th or 20th centuries, no one ranks higherthan--and it is difficult for me to find the equalof--John Lewis."

Higginbotham stressed that none of the renownedHarvard professors of Afro-American studies,including himself, has the first-hand experienceof Lewis.

"Not one of us had our skulls fractured, facedpolice dogs, got knocked down by fire hoses," hesaid. "Not one of us faced death for the beliefthat equal justice under the law [is a fundamentalright]."

Perhaps Lewis summed up his involvement in theCivil Rights movement best when he said, "Equalityis an ongoing struggle. It's not one day, not onemonth, but a lifetime."

Audience members gave Lewis high praise, forhis words and his deeds.

"It was one the best speeches I've ever heard,"Nnamdi D. Okike '02 said. "It was an amazinghistory of the movement and of his life."

Stephen A. Jacob, a first-year student at KSG,echoed Okike's reaction. "He encapsulated thefeeling of the Civil Rights movement, which he wassuch an integral part of. It's so important to beat this sort of event.

The struggle for voting rights came to a headearly in 1965, in Selma, Ala., in an event thatcame to be known as "Bloody Sunday."

Lewis helped organize an "orderly, silent,peaceful" march from Selma to Montgomery by 600people, primarily elderly men and women, he said.

The marchers departed from the parking lot of achurch and proceeded across a bridge. At the otherside Alabama state troopers were waiting.

"They beat us with nightsticks and bullwhipsand threw tear gas," Lewis said.

Lewis was hit on the head by a nightstick.

"I thought I was going to die. I saw death, andI stared him down," he said.

Lewis suffered a concussion, but the movementprevailed. Two weeks later, more than 35,000people marched into Montgomery, and later thatyear Congress passed the Voting Rights Act.

Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, public serviceprofessor of jurisprudence at the Kennedy Schoolof Government (KSG), introduced Lewis after aperformance by the Kuumba Singers.

"On my list of heroes, whether from the 18th,19th or 20th centuries, no one ranks higherthan--and it is difficult for me to find the equalof--John Lewis."

Higginbotham stressed that none of the renownedHarvard professors of Afro-American studies,including himself, has the first-hand experienceof Lewis.

"Not one of us had our skulls fractured, facedpolice dogs, got knocked down by fire hoses," hesaid. "Not one of us faced death for the beliefthat equal justice under the law [is a fundamentalright]."

Perhaps Lewis summed up his involvement in theCivil Rights movement best when he said, "Equalityis an ongoing struggle. It's not one day, not onemonth, but a lifetime."

Audience members gave Lewis high praise, forhis words and his deeds.

"It was one the best speeches I've ever heard,"Nnamdi D. Okike '02 said. "It was an amazinghistory of the movement and of his life."

Stephen A. Jacob, a first-year student at KSG,echoed Okike's reaction. "He encapsulated thefeeling of the Civil Rights movement, which he wassuch an integral part of. It's so important to beat this sort of event.