Civil rights activists pay tribute to Rep. John Lewis
Following the death of civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) on Friday, fellow activists took to social media late Friday and early Saturday to pay tribute to his life and memory.
Rev. Jesse Jackson, who in 1965 participated alongside Lewis in the famous protest march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery to demand voting rights protection for Black Americans, called the congressman "the gift that kept on the giving" and the "valedictorian" of the class of civil rights leaders who "broke out of the bubble of segregation in the 1960s."
Sharing my reflections on the passing of @repjohnlewis. Rest in heavenly peace. #GoodTrouble. pic.twitter.com/jcA6OPm7Eh
— Rev Jesse Jackson Sr (@RevJJackson) July 18, 2020
Andrew Young, another early civil rights leader who previously represented the same Georgia district as Lewis in Congress and later served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and the mayor of Atlanta, lauded his friend's ability to always remain calm, grounded, and humble, even in heated situations. Young said Lewis didn't have a "trace of arrogance or hubris about him."
"I don't know anybody that is respected by more people than John Lewis," says civil rights leader and former Rep. Andrew Young. "I have never seen John Lewis angry, I've never seen John Lewis short-tempered. He is always understanding, he is always determined." pic.twitter.com/RoeJBneGvK
— CNN (@CNN) July 18, 2020
Rev. Al Sharpton called Lewis his role model and said "he changed the world without hate, rancor, arrogance," while Martin Luther King III, the oldest son of Martin Luther King Jr., said Lewis "was an American treasure" who "gave a voice to the voiceless."
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