The Georgia Democrat, who died Friday at 80, spoke at the 1963 March on Washington. Lewis led the march for voting rights across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., in 1965in what became known as “Bloody Sunday.” Lewis suffered a brutal beating by police who violently confronted the demonstrators with bullwhips and nightsticks.
It was appropriate then that his final public act was to visit the newly named Black Lives Matter Plaza on a street leading to the White House — a symbol of the progress the country has made on issues of racial justice and the work that still needed to be done.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who accompanied Lewis on that visit, described him “as the conscience of Congress . . . the conscience of our nation.”
“John Lewis had faith in our nation and in the next generation,” she wrote on Twitter. “He warned us not to get lost in despair. So, in this moment of grief, we are hopeful — we are hopeful that, collectively, we can live up to his legacy.”
Former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, released a stirring statement on behalf of himself and his wife, Jill.
“We are made in the image of God, and then there is John Lewis,” Biden began. “How could someone in flesh and blood be so courageous, so full of hope and love in the face of so much hate, violence, and vengeance?”
“He was truly a one-of-a-kind, a moral compass who always knew where to point us and which direction to march,” Biden wrote.
Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, called Lewis “the truest kind of patriot.”
“He believed America could be better, even live up to its highest founding ideals of equality & liberty for all. He made good trouble to help us get there. Now it’s up to the rest of us to carry on his work,” she tweeted.
For most of the day, President Trump’s voice was missing from the outpouring. After leaving his private golf club in Sterling, Va., around 2 p.m. he tweeted: “Saddened to hear the news of civil rights hero John Lewis passing. Melania and I send our prayers to he and his family.”
Lewis skipped Trump’s inauguration in 2017, saying he didn’t see Trump as a “legitimate president.” Trump lashed out, responding in a tweet that Lewis was: “All talk, talk, talk — no action or results. Sad!”
Before Trump tweeted, Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, had implored the president not to comment on Lewis’s passing.
“@realDonaldTrump while the nation mourns the passing of a national hero, please say nothing. Please don’t comment on the life of Congressman Lewis. Your press secretary released a statement, leave it at that,” she tweeted to the president. “Please let us mourn in peace.”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany made the statement on Twitter, writing that Lewis “was…
Read More:John Lewis tributes pour in from leaders across the country
