John Lewis- Looking for Connections with an American Hero

Congressman John Lewis (1940-2020) credit: Magnolia Pictures

   Congressman John Lewis was just a regular American. Like me. Like you. Like everyone else. Regular Americans can do extraordinary things. They can even be heroes. I’ve never really liked the idea of having personal heroes. People are not perfect. Heroic acts are something different though and John Lewis racked up those by the dozens as a very young man. Today, the day after the death of the 80-year-old Civil Rights icon, I have to admit that I may have held him in such esteem that he definitely was a legend and a hero to me. I never got to meet him, but I sat on a bus near the Freedom Rider once--not in 1961 of course, but more on that later. 

Freedom Rider arrest #GoodTrouble #NecessaryTrouble

    

     John Lewis was accessible. Courageous. Tenacious. Compassionate. I would like to be more like that. I thought about the arc of his life and how we are all connected in some way. I found a few links and realized the more links we can find and create with one another the better off we will be.

    It is said that Dr. Martin Luther King upon meeting the teenage John Lewis in 1958 asked, “so you are John Lewis, the boy from Troy?” My mother-in-law was born and raised in Troy, Alabama. My father-in-law was born near Troy and grew up on an Alabama farm like John Lewis. My in-laws were also college students at Troy State University in 1958. In that year John Lewis’ family feared that he would enroll and break the segregation barrier at the college. Lewis' family feared the fallout could make them lose their farm and that it could lead to their son losing his life. Over the next decade, they probably had that concern every single day for him. John Lewis went to Nashville to seminary instead of attending Troy--and the rest is history.

Fort Meade, Florida

    I entered Troy State (now Troy University) as a freshman in 1981. The sweat, tears and yes- blood of people like John Lewis ensured that my 1^st grade through college experience was integrated. I started 1^st grade in 1969 in Fort Meade, Florida in a classroom that was newly “not separated” but in town that was still “not equal.” My small Central Florida hometown has a "line" drawn across the middle. North of that highway was almost completely white. South of that highway was almost completely black. Latinos would live around the edges or south of the line and then usually depart in large numbers for seasonal agricultural work. I remember as a young kid thinking about how the best muddy roads to ride my bike on were in the "black" part of town...because that's where most of the unpaved roads were.  

     While I became a college freshman in 1981, John Lewis became a freshman City Councilman for Atlanta. Twenty years earlier, in 1961, John Lewis was doing what he always did and what will always be associated with his name--getting in “good trouble” as a Freedom Rider on buses across the South.  For me, 1961 is special because my parents were married in that year. I was very lucky that the ideals of John Lewis about America, unity, equality and love were the ideals my parents surrounded me and my sister in. When I was a kid and a relative or parent of a friend would drop the “n” word, I knew that those people were damaged goods and to avoid them.  In 1963, two years after my parents married I arrived--just a couple of months after a 23-year-old John Lewis spoke to over 250,000 people at the March on Washington where the “I Have a Dream” speech entered our national and international consciousness.

John Lewis, March on Washington- 1963

    

    My wife and I rolled into Arizona in 1986 as newlyweds and new to the US Air

Willams AFB T-38

Force. One of the first things we saw in Phoenix was a group angrily protesting the governer’s consideration of the state recognizing the new Martin Luther King Holiday. Arizona was the last state to recognize the holiday seven years later, mostly due to intense pressure from the National Football League.                                     A year later in 1987 we drove across the Golden Gate for our first Air Force assignment to California. I don’t recall knowing at the time that the man that led that march across the bridge in Selma, Alabama back in the 60’s had just taken office as a freshman United States Congressman representing Atlanta and the 5^th District of Georgia. My Air Force path and Congressman Lewis’ path would cross on a bus 9 years later on a very sad day.

       In April of 1996, I sat on an Air Force bus rumbling across Dover Air Force base after the ceremony commemorating the 35 people who died in the crash of an Air Force CT-43 in Dobrovnik, Croatia. US Commerce Secretary Ron Brown died in the crash. My friend Tim Schafer also died in the mishap and I was the military liaison for his family that day.  President Bill Clinton had met with all of the families privately and then spoke at the service. 

Ron Brown & Pres. Clinton

     My duties for the day were almost over and the "crew" bus was departing from the hangar where the ceremony was held.  I just happened to look around on the mostly empty and very quiet bus and saw a man that I recognized. I didn’t instantly come up with the name, but “John Lewis” came to me after a moment. I recall knowing that I would always remember sitting near the great man. I wanted to say something. But he looked pained.  Surely he knew Secretary Ron Brown and felt a personal loss just like I did for Captain Tim Schafer.

John Lewis

     I read Congressman Lewis’ book “Walkin’ with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement” a few years ago.  I’d like to send a copy to every home in America today. How can we keep the fight going for a more just nation? We simply need more Americans like John Lewis to speak up, speak out, stand up and fight for justice.  When every American can vote with ease like I always have (vote-by-mail since 1986) then that will be a start.  We have to think differently or maybe just listen to the great man himself:

     "My philosophy is very simple, when you see something that is not right, that is not fair, that is not just, say something, do something, get in trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble."                        

- John Lewis

     Last night, when his death was first announced I heard a young activist call him a founder of this country. I love that.  Jamall Bowman, running for Congress in New York (NY#16), said that “John Lewis is a founding father of the America we must become.” Just four months ago Lewis wrote about his 1965 march on Selma experience: “We were beaten, we were tear-gassed. I thought I was going to die on this bridge. But somehow and some way, God almighty helped me here. We cannot give up now. We cannot give in. We must keep the faith, keep our eyes on the prize.” Entertainer Amber Ruffin’s response to that quote yesterday was “my goodness, he lived the hell out of that life.” Yes he did and we can too. Time for #GoodTrouble.