Civil rights legend Rep. John Lewis dies

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the renowned civil rights leader who served as a symbol of the movement throughout his more than three decades in Congress, died Friday at the age of 80.

From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. on “Bloody Sunday,” Lewis decisively carved a place for himself in the history books as a courageous young activist during the height of the civil rights movement.

He was elected to Congress in 1986 and served 17 terms representing an Atlanta-area district. While in Congress, Lewis served as a physical reminder of how far the country had come on civil rights — and how much more was left to be done.

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), of which Lewis was one of its most senior members, mourned that “the world has lost a legend.”

“The Congressional Black Caucus is known as the Conscience of the Congress. John Lewis was known as the conscience of our caucus,” the CBC said in a statement. Lewis, the youngest keynote speaker at the March on Washington in 1963, was the only person who delivered remarks at the event to witness Barack Obama winning election as the nation’s first African American president 45 years later.

When Lewis asked Obama to sign a commemorative photograph at his 2009 inauguration, the newly sworn-in president wrote: “Because of you, John.”

Lewis was born on Feb. 21, 1940 to a family of sharecroppers on a farm outside of Troy, Ala., and attended segregated public schools. Inspired by the activism demonstrated by Montgomery Bus Boycott and Martin Luther King, Jr., Lewis began his work of what he liked to call “good trouble.”

Lewis started his civil rights activism by organizing sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in Nashville,

There's also a groundswell "movement" to rename the bridge where John Lewis was beat during the civil rights march to Selma. Again, if you look at the CURRENT name of the bridge, its named after an even WORSE white supremacist DemonRAT than Alexander H. Stephens. Lewis was beat on The Edmund Pettus Bridge, named in "honor" of the former U.S. Senator from Alabama and Confederate General who became a Grand Dragon for the KKK after the war.

I totally see Impy's point about not rolling over for the left and meekly letting them whitewash history and claim victory here, but this is certainly not a hill to die on. I'd be dead set against it if they wanted to tear down a statue of pro-civil rights Republican and put that dirtbag John Lewis in its place, but we are talking about a couple of really disgusting white supremacists.

Politically, its not hard to see why scores of Georgia Republicans would sign on to efforts to rename that stuff for John Lewis.

The biggest problem is the left creates the narrative that liberals were all for ending segregation and conservatives all opposed it, and they just dismiss the fact that all the politicians who fought it being card-carrying RATS by using "the two parties switched sides, Democrats were the Conservative party in America back then". Plenty of useful idiots on "our side" even help them spread that narrative, because they can't believe their honorable "states rights" granddaddy could have possibly been all for FDR's big federal government gravy train.

The media helps them too, by conviently ignoring any conservative and/or Republican who was instrumental in those 1950s and 60s era causes like the Selma march. For example, CORE predates Martin Luther King's SCLC by several decades, and was one of the largest groups responsible for organizing Selma... but the guy who lead CORE, James Farmer, later endorsed Nixon and ended up in the Nixon adminstration, and the successors who carried on the group's work, Roy Innis and Niger Innis, were both staunch, outspoken conservatives (Niger also helped organize Tea Party groups in modern times), so the media can't acknowledge ANY of that because it goes against the "liberals=pro-civil-rights, conservatives=anti-civil-rights" propaganda.

I would say the ONE silver lining here is that John Lewis made a entire public career riding on the "I fought for Civil Rights" narrative that its ALL he is going to likely be remembered for, even though his career as a "public servant" was probably 20 times longer. Anyone who sees a statue of him isn't going to be looking on with pride that Lewis did a "sit in" for gun control or said the Contract with American will starve senior citizens or falsely accused all Tea Party members of using anti-black slurs. Despite what the left thinks, nobody gives a crap about what he "fought for" in Congress, he was just another loudmouth liberal black guy from a hyperpartisan RAT district. He's going to be remembered for getting clubbed on a bridge when was 23 years old. Just like Rosa Parks was honored by Laying In State at the capitol, but nobody can name anything that happened in her life AFTER she stood up on that bus.

Politically, its not hard to see why scores of Georgia Republicans would sign on to efforts to rename that stuff for John Lewis.

Sadly I agree. Because they are too big of pussys to say no, something should not be named after a commie jerkoff just cause he did something good once and has been defied by people that hate us. That one mobster really helped with the war effort (WW2), maybe name a park after him? Lewis was a jerk when he was alive and is still a jerk. No different than John Glenn, you ain't a hero anymore after you vote to suck out babies brains for 30 years.

The bridge should be renamed for Admiral Denton.

No one has to die on a hill but you really never gain anything by playing along with the lib woke shit. Blacks and liberal Whites in Alabama (and Georgia) will vote democrat no matter what happens with the bridge (or statue).

If some "national hero" who later became a conservative Republican Senator died democrats sure as shit wouldn't go along with naming stuff after him, they'd trash him on twitter like he was Hitler. We need stop accepting their double standards.

Perhaps I sound unreasonable but really I feel like we're at war right now and John Lewis was an enemy brigadier who "bombed" our children. 10 years ago I might have felt differently but THEY escalated this from much more than a fight about tax rates. NY times is gonna publish Tucker Carlson's address for no reason just in the hopes that scumbags try to terrorize his family (which already happened to him when he lived in DC). Nodding in agreement while John Lewis is sucked off is Bush era nonsense, we're passed that. There is no pretending we have ANYTHING in common with the enemy.

“If some “national hero” who later became a conservative Republican Senator died democrats sure as shit wouldn’t go along with naming stuff after him, they’d trash him on twitter like he was Hitler. We need stop accepting their double standards.“

Not an exact fit, but did you see this?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8527767/amp/Red-Bull-fires-executives-pushed-diversity-inclusion.html

The guy did/said NOTHING “bad”. NOTHING!!!

“1984” has become real. This isn’t a joke.

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