John Lewis has represented Georgia’s fifth congressional district since 1987. But John Lewis grew up under the unjust and terrifying Jim Crow laws in Alabama.
At 20, in 1961, he was among the first Freedom Riders. He became chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
John Lewis helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he spoke alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1965, on that bridge in Selma, John Lewis led the standoff between Alabama state troopers and the crowd of civil rights protestors.
On that Bloody Sunday, John Lewis was hit by a state trooper’s truncheon so hard that it fractured his skull. He refused to go to a hospital, and bloody as he was, he mounted the pulpit of a church, and inspired many other protestors. Because of the national outrage that grew out of seeing on TV the Bloody Sunday and its acts of nonviolent resistance, President Lyndon Johnson pushed through the historic Voting Rights Act.
Recently, Rep. John Lewis gave one of the most compelling speeches that supported Trump’s impeachment. “Our nation is founded on the principle that we do not have kings. We have presidents. And the Constitution is our compass. When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something. To do something. Our children and their children will ask us, ‘What did you do? What did you say?’ For some, this vote may be hard. But we have a mission and a mandate to be on the right side of history.”
Now is another national outrage. We cannot allow this impeachment trial to proceed with no documents, no evidence, no witnesses! Here’s an easy action. Call the following senators and remind them that even if it’s hard, they have a moral obligation to uphold the oath that they took to be impartial jurors and hold a fair trial (not a cover up). Remind them that they are also on trial. Will they uphold the Constitution? Call Susan Collins: 202-224-2523, Lisa Murkowski: 202-224-6665, Lamar Alexander: 202-224-4944, and Mitt Romney: 202-224-5251. Be on the right side of history.
Ava Gips
Deerfield