John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement whose bloody beating by Alabama state troopers in 1965 helped galvanize opposition to racial segregation, and who went on to a long and celebrated career in Congress, has died. He was 80.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed Lewis’ passing late Friday night, calling him “one of the greatest heroes of American history.”
“All of us were humbled to call Congressman Lewis a colleague, and are heartbroken by his passing,” Pelosi said. “May his memory be an inspiration that moves us all to, in the face of injustice, make ‘good trouble, necessary trouble.’”
Lewis is from that pantheon of civil rights activists who lead - always from the front - marches and rallies, often into the path of brutality and attacks by the white authorities who wanted to keep the United States segregated and keep Blacks poor and broken. His best-known moment came in 1965, when he was part of a freedom walk to Alabama's capital Montgomery calling for the right of Blacks to vote, when the police came down violently as the march crossed the infamous Edmund Pettus Bridge:
At age 25 — walking at the head of the march with his hands tucked in the pockets of his tan overcoat — Lewis was knocked to the ground and beaten by police. His skull was fractured, and nationally televised images of the brutality forced the country’s attention on racial oppression in the South.
Within days, King led more marches in the state, and President Lyndon Johnson soon was pressing Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act. The bill became law later that year, removing barriers that had barred Blacks from voting...
As the Sixties gave way to the Seventies, Lewis had relocated to Atlanta and got into politics, going from city council to U.S. Congressman by 1986. He remained in office until his death, a strong and fierce reminder of the fight for the right to vote and the ongoing fights to uphold the American ideals of Liberty and Justice For All.
In that role, Lewis moved into the ranks of legend and hero. His biography and civil rights struggles were translated into a series of graphic novels, starting with March, a three-volume set with a sequel series titled Run. The books' popularity exists beyond the comics shops: it's becoming required reading at schools and colleges.
With that, Lewis got invites to comic-cons, not a place for history and usually a place for gaudy outfits, oversized costumes showing off the likes of buckets of Batmans, waves of Wonder Women, bevvies of Black Widows, and Plethora of Deadpools. It's called cosplay.
To promote the second volume of March, Lewis decided to cosplay... and showed up in the tan trenchcoat he wore as he crossed the Pettus Bridge. Via Michael Cavna at the Washington Post:
And so, on Saturday, the civil-rights hero made his return to Comic-Con, this time to support “March: Book Two” alongside Aydin and the trilogy’s artist, the Eisner Award-winning Nate Powell. And this time, Lewis indeed chose to cosplay.
Trench coat? Check.
Backpack? Check.
And inside that backpack were even a couple of books: the first two volumes of the RFK Award-winning “March.”
Upon landing in San Diego, Lewis had decided to dress up as his 25-year-old self — the young man who, on the road to Selma, Ala., led 600 civil-rights marchers peacefully across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, at the foot of which the nonviolent protestors were beaten and tear-gassed by state troopers, many on horseback. Attacked by nightstick, his skull fractured, Lewis bled that day for the cause. He told me: “I saw death. I thought I was going to die...”
And there, as the three “March” collaborators arrived at their Saturday panel, was not just a large, eager audience, but a grouping of schoolchildren down in front. Lewis told Comic Riffs two years ago that a motivating factor in writing “March” as a graphic novel was to reach the next generation — to have them, through art, intimately witness the emotional and physical toll that the path to freedom took, from sit-ins to freedom rides.
A local school teacher who had tickets to the San Diego Comic Con - THE con, the one every comic fantasy scifi geek hopes to attend once in their lives - brought his kids to see Lewis, to pass along the experience of the Civil Rights era, to learn the history and be touched by it.
When it got time to end the panel and get Lewis back to his celebrity booth, an agreement got hashed out to let Lewis lead the kids in a walk of their own.
He walked an army of kids around the convention hall. not into the face of racial violence but a teachable moment how a movement can move people, across conventions as much as bridges and cities.
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| From the Washington Post article, credited to Top Shelf Productions |
There's a saying in pop culture: Representation matters. It's why little girls look up to giant posters of Wonder Woman and cry when running into Gal Gadot (it's why getting a Wonder Woman movie made period since the superhero movie boom of the late 1980s was a big f-cking deal). It's why not just African-Americans but Africans looked to Black Panther as a role model since the 1960s when Lee and Kirby created his character. It's why the push for Asian heroes to get introduced into the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is front-page news.
John Lewis lived as a hero in a trenchcoat. He walked the walk, and showed younger generations the path to walk as well.
Lewis walks into legend now, sadly at a moment when this generation and the ones younger than us need to march against the police violence and political tyranny that's growing worse.
Time to march like Lewis.
