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He�s the old lion, the Lion King, and he carries himself with the royal bearing of one who has earned the title honorably. When he speaks, it has a certain tone to it that comes with the title. It is almost as if what he could once do with his claws, his jaws, and his body he can now do with just his voice.
His name is John Lewis and unlike other black leaders who almost elbow their way to the cameras for coverage, he does not seek the limelight just for the sake of seeing himself on TV. Lion Kings don’t need to do that. Instead they devote their energies to getting things done. John Lewis has been doing that for almost half a century and the fights he has fought have left him with scars as visible as those on any real Lion King. It is those fights that may him on of the more sought-after endorsements in the Democratic presidential campaign.
He talked a bit about that life in a speech he gave this summer in support of renewing the Voting Rights Act. I can’t even begin to claim to have heard even a fraction of the speeches given in Congress this past session, but I will stack this one up against any. In fact I think it may be one of the best speeches ever given and deserves to be anthologized and read and recited.
My son was lucky enough to hear the speech on the floor while he was interning last summer with the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. He said it was one of the highlights of his summer. My guess is that when he is older he will look back on that moment as a once-in-a-lifetime event, the way people in the 19th century talked about actually hearing a Lincoln or Webster speak.
Great speeches should be about great causes and Lewis had one in the Voting Rights Act. They also should evoke great principles and there is none greater in this country than Liberal America’s idea of the level playing field. Great speeches should also contain great rhetoric and Lewis gives us so much of that, so effortlessly that it is like watching Jordan shoot a jump shot to win a game. Finally great speeches should be evoked by dramatic confrontations.
Lewis was scheduled to speak anyway, but Georgia Representative Lynn Westmoreland made the fatal mistake of pulling the Lion King’s tail. Westmoreland invoked Lewis in his speech AGAINST renewing the Voting Rights Act, stating that things had changed in Georgia
But don�t just take my word for it on Georgia�s progress. Listen to this ringing endorsement from my colleague from Georgia, Congressman John Lewis, an icon of the civil rights movement.
Lewis rose to the floor in righteous indignation. Westmoreland had committed an unpardonable sin. It was as if someone had invoked Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, to defend discrimination. My son said the look on Lewis’ face was enough to freeze the room. Everyone knew what was coming. The Lion King was about to cuff Westmoreland aside the way an alpha male clubs aside an obnoxious cub.
We cannot separate the debate today from our history and the past we have traveled. When we marched from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, it was dangerous. It was a matter of life and death. I was beaten, I had a concussion at the bridge. I almost died. I gave blood, but some of my colleagues gave their very lives.
Before the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, all across the American South very few African Americans were registered to vote. Men and women of color stood in unmovable lines. In Lowndes County, Alabama, between Selma and Montgomery, more than 80 percent of that county was African American, but not a single African American was registered to vote. Many people were harassed, jailed, beaten, and some were even shot and killed. I cannot forget that in 1964, three young men that I knew, James Cheney, Mickey Schwerner, and Andy Goodman, two were white, one was black, they went out to investigate the burning of a church, a church that was to be used to prepare people to pass the so-called literacy test. These three young men were arrested, jailed, they were taken from the jail by the sheriff and his deputy, beaten, shot, and killed. They were killed for trying to help people become participants in the democratic process.
During that dark period in our recent past, black men and women who were teachers in public schools, colleges and university professors were told that they could not read well enough and they failed their so-called literacy test. On one occasion a would-be voter was asked to name the number of bubbles in a bar of soap. On another occasion, a person was asked to count the number of jelly beans in a jar. Yes, we have made some progress. We have come a distance. We are no longer met with bullwhips, fire hoses, and violence when we attempt to register and vote. But the sad fact is, the sad truth is discrimination still exists, and that is why we still need the Voting Rights Act. And we must not go back to the dark path.
On the 42nd anniversary of the civil rights march in Selma, Alabama that had a nation riveted to its television screens as they saw how far Southern brutality would go to protect segregation, presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton locked arms with other veterans of the movement and relived that walk across the Edmund Pettis Bridge. But my eyes were focused on the Lion King, because he was there when it counted.
You do not come by a title like the Lion King without earning it. Lewis was 25 when he helped to organize the Selma March and was in the front ranks of the demonstrators who marched across the bridge where they were met by Alabama police officers who proceeded to use any weapon they could find to pummel and thrash the marchers. One of them hit Lewis in the skull with a nightstick, fracturing it. Bleeding, disoriented and lucky to still be alive, Lewis managed to make his way back to a nearby church. Before he would allow people to take him to the hospital, he stood in front of the cameras, to give testimony.
It would take several posts to cite why the Lion King deserves his title, but a few highlights give you a sense of how much this man gave to his people, to the movement and to America–even if America to some extent still refuses to give this man his full due. In 1961, Lewis helped to organize the Freedom Riders, who challenged segregation on interstate buses. Two years later, this son of sharecroppers also was one of the major organizers and speakers at the March on Washington where Dr. King gave his famous speech. It was Lewis as head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) who coordinated one of the great moments in American history–Freedom Summer, the year before the Selma march. John Lewis was at the center of virtually every major civil rights effort.
So when Clinton and Obama came to Selma, they came there not only to honor those who marched (by the way, where were the other candidates?), they also came out of honor and respect for John Lewis–and perhaps to get his endorsement or at least have their picture taken with him.
But Lewis played his hand cagily, seeming to favor neither of the two. Reporters pressed him repeatedly, but Lewis carefully maintained his neutrality. Part of the reason is that he is in a difficult position. He has openly stated his admiration for the Clintons and yet he also knows that Obama is the first black man to run for president.
To their credit, neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton pressed the point with Lewis, nor did they try to turn what was a solemn event with which they had not personal connection into a political photo opportunity. Both of them gave eloquent speeches that honored the marchers and the movement, putting the emphasis where it should be.
Right now not many in the mainstream press and even fewer in blogdom have paid much attention to the black vote. Back in January I said the votes of people of color and blue collar and union workers would determine the Democratic nominee. I have seen nothing in these two months that has changed my mind.
That is why the Lion King is so important. My guess is that he will try to maintain his neutrality as long as he can, maybe even right up to the convention. But it is also possible that some event, some speech, perhaps just a word or two may cause him to endorse either Clinton or Obama. The other candidates currently in the field stand no chance of receiving his endorsement. You do not snub John Lewis and you do not pass up Selma.
The Lion King is above all a man of principle, perhaps as principled as anyone in the Democratic Party, so you can be sure if and when he makes his decision it will be based on those principles he has fought for his entire life. I call them the cornerstones of Liberal America: voting rights, educational equity, economic and social justice and media fairness. I for one will take this man’s recommendation very seriously.
So while many in blogdom run around and see who is saying what on Iraq or who has the support of Emily’s List or some other group, I intend to keep my eye on John Lewis and wait for the Lion King to roar.
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