OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Memorializing the Honorable John Lewis

Floor Speech

Date: July 22, 2020
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Arts, Entertainment, and History

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. BROOKS of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor and remember my friend, the civil rights pioneer, Congressman John Lewis, a true gentle giant among us.

He walked the talk, and we watched him walk the talk in these Halls of Congress for many years, from his years as a student at Fisk University to his last days as one of the most influential Members of Congress.

He didn't let bad actors and people who were trying to do him harm or even cancer slow him down from his fight for equality until the very end.

He led many Members of Congress on that march in Selma, a civil rights pilgrimage that my husband and I were honored to join him on a couple of years ago when we went to Memphis, Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma. He walked the talk and walked with us and shared with us the memories of that painful journey for him and all of those students and all the people that he led across that bridge. He took our hands, and we all walked together.

He then later that year came to Indianapolis, where he was the keynote speaker because our community celebrated the Kennedy King Memorial Initiative becoming a national historic site. Indianapolis was the site where Senator Robert Kennedy informed our city that Dr. Martin Luther King had been killed on that night 50 years ago.

It was in Indianapolis, in 1968, that John Lewis learned from Robert Kennedy about Dr. King's death. Dr. King was his friend, his mentor, and his hero. He had not been to this park in Indianapolis for 50 years, yet he came there as the keynote speaker. He brought together our community--Democrats, Republicans, Hispanics, African Americans, and White. Everyone stood together to hear his words, to honor him, and to pay tribute to his legacy, to the legacy of Dr. King, and to the legacy of Senator Robert Kennedy.

John was our friend. He walked the talk. He is walking in Heaven now. He is showing us all how to walk the talk, and now it is up to us to not let him down.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT


Source
arrow_upward