President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both celebrated the year-long anniversary of the death of US Congressman John Lewis on Saturday by calling on Congress to honor the legacy of the civil rights icon through the passage of voting rights protection laws.
Biden said he often ponders the last conversation he and his wife Jill had with Lewis days before the Georgia Congressman died.
“Rather than answering our concerns for him, he asked us to focus on the unfinished work – his life’s work – of healing and uniting this nation,” Biden said in a statement.
The president said the unfinished business included “building an economy that respects the dignity of working people with good jobs and good wages” and “ensuring equal justice under the law is real in practice, not just a promise set in stone.” “.
“Perhaps most of all it means continuing the cause John was willing to give his life to: protecting sacred suffrage,” Biden said. “Since the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, we have seen such relentless attacks on the right to vote and the integrity of our elections.”
Biden said the attacks include the January 6 riot and lies about the 2020 elections.
Lewis was a high profile civil rights activist before winning a seat in Congress in Georgia in 1986 as a Democrat. Harris said in her own statement on Saturday that he was “an American hero”.
“Congressman Lewis has fought tirelessly for the highest ideals of our country: freedom and justice for all and the right of every American to be heard at the ballot box,” said Harris.
Lewis was 80 years old when he died of advanced pancreatic cancer months after it was announced. He was the youngest and last survivor of the Big Six civil rights activists, a group led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that had the greatest influence on the movement.
Lewis was best known for leading about 600 protesters in the 1965 Bloody Sunday march over Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Alabama State soldiers beat Lewis and other activists who marched for the right to vote that day.
As a college student at American Baptist College and then Fisk University, Lewis helped segregate Nashville and campaigned for racial justice across the south.
Nashville celebrated Friday and Saturday with events and renamed much of Fifth Avenue Rep. John Lewis Way. Among the facilities that line the street is the downtown Woolworth Building, where Lewis and other black civil rights activists sat defiantly at the segregated lunch counter that would not serve them in 1960. Lewis was hit in the ribs and saw someone stick a cigarette out of the back of another protester.
Hundreds marched down the street before arriving at the Ryman Auditorium for a ceremony attended by Rev. James Lawson, writer Jon Meacham, and musicians Rodney Crowell and Darius Rucker.
Senior US lawmakers and members of the Lewis family gathered in San Diego on Saturday to christen a naval ship named after Lewis.
“This ship will be a beacon for the world and a reminder of the tenacity and courage of John Lewis to all who see it,” said spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Ca., At the christening of the USNS John Lewis.
Lewis’ nephew, Marcus Tyner, said the family were grateful for the honor, but said “what my uncle would like most” if Congress passed the voting bill named after him.
The ship will be the first in the Navy’s fleet of oilers designed to carry fuel and water to ships performing missions in the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean and beyond.
In her statement on Saturday, Harris recalled crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama with Lewis during a 2020 memorial service.
“Suffrage is still under attack in our nation’s states,” Harris said. “And the best way to honor the legacy of Congressman Lewis is to keep the fight going – by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and For the People Act, and helping voters, regardless of where they live, to register and vote let, and let their vote count. “
The Democrats on Capitol Hill are pushing for a comprehensive federal ballot and election bill that Senate Republicans have jointly blocked, saying they believe it will affect the state’s ability to conduct elections. Most Republicans have also opposed a separate bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore parts of the voting rights law that were weakened by the Supreme Court.
