But what it represented never disappeared from John Lewis’ spirit. By continuing to use this site, you agree to our updated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You have faced more than a fair share of challenges in these past few months, and you have faced them with candor and dignity and honor and I thank you for your leadership. among the politicians who offered statements on him, 'He will live forever in the hearts of Americans', Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Word? He took a savage beating on more than one day. First, the famous story of John at 4 with his cousins and siblings, holding his aunt’s hand, more than a dozen of them, running around in a little old wooden house as the wind threatened to blow the house off its moorings, going to the place where the house was rising and all the tiny bodies trying to weigh it down. Hours after Lewis' death was announced on July 18, Clinton shared in a tweet a common sentiment among the politicians who offered statements on him: He was "the conscience of the nation.". Twenty years ago, we celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Selma March and we walked together along with Coretta and many others from the movement who are no longer with us. Twenty years ago, when I came here after the Selma march to a big dinner honoring John and Lillian and John-Miles, you had a big Afro and it was really pretty, and your daddy was giving you grief about it, and I said to John, 'let’s not get old too soon. Clinton, Biden, and their fascist racist Dems running the show can f’ off… Red and Blue is a white supremacy trap. We are here today because he had the kind of character he showed when he lost an election. He thought the open hand was better than the clenched fist. His homegoing has been something to behold. And I say there were two or three years there, where the movement went a little too far towards Stokely, but in the end, John Lewis prevailed. And I say there were two or three years there, where the movement went a little too far towards Stokely, but in the end, John Lewis prevailed. I think he learned something about the power of working together, something that was more powerful than any instruction. Nobody knows what happened to it. Keep moving. Our President Barack Obama gave a beautiful speech that demanded a whole lot of systemic changes. Thank you very much. "It is so fitting on the day of his service, he leaves us our marching orders: 'Keep moving. When John Lewis was alive this is what he had to say about Kwame Ture (Stokley Carmichael). Jackson and Diane Nash and many others who survive. So I said, John, what’s the closest you’ve ever actually came to getting killed doing this. It is so fitting on the day of his service, he leaves us our marching orders: Keep moving. I must say, for a fella who got his start speaking to chickens, John’s gotten a pretty finely organized and orchestrated and deeply deserved send-off this last week. So we honor our friend for his faith and for living his faith, which the Scripture said is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. "He never lost heart. I said: I would infect every American with whatever it was that John Lewis got as a 4-year-old kid and took through a lifetime to keep moving and to keep moving in the right direction and keep bringing other people to move and to do it without hatred in his heart, with a song and to be able to sing and dance. And at the very last second, I turned my neck away and the crowd pushed him a little bit and a couple seconds later, I couldn't believe I was still alive. I suggest since he’s close enough to God to keep his eye on the sparrow and on us, we salute, suit up and march on. As John’s brother Freddie said in Troy, keep moving to the ballot box even if it’s a mailbox, and keep moving to the beloved community. ', But on that night, I was almost out of time and to be President, people were asking me, 'well, if you could do one more thing what it would be?' So you stand there at a funeral for one activist and discredit another activist? We are here today because he had the kind of character he showed when he lost an election.”. Hours after Lewis' death was announced on July 18, Clinton shared in a tweet a common sentiment among the politicians who offered statements on him : He was "the conscience of the nation… Maybe someone someday will be stricken with conscience and give some of it back. But John put an apple, an orange, a toothbrush, toothpaste to take care of his body ‘cause he figured he would get arrested. Someone asked me that night, because I had many friends in Atlanta, and I said, if I could do just one thing, if God came to me tonight and said, 'OK your time is up, you gotta go home, and I’m not a genie, I’m not giving you three wishes. Just three years later, he lost the leadership of SNCC to Stokely Carmichael because it was a pretty good job for a guy that young and come from Troy, Alabama. So he’s getting ready to march from Selma to Montgomery, he wants to get across the bridge. We had beautiful tributes honoring his greatness as a politician and a man. I always will. I just loved him. What do we remember? John Lewis’ homegoing service was a thing of beauty. or 'what do you wish you had done that you didn’t?' Thursday, Clinton spoke of Lewis' humanity, strength and his unwavering belief in a future without racism. Bossip Comment Policy He fought the good fight, he kept the faith, but we got our last letter today on the pages of the New York Times. Second, nearly twenty years later, when he was 23, the youngest speaker and the last speaker at the March on Washington, when he gave a great speech urging people to take to the streets across the South to see the chance to finally end racism. I think three things happened to John Lewis long before we met and became friends that made him who he was. '", Barack Obama's eulogy to Lewis:'America was built by John Lewises', George W. Bush's speech on Lewis:'He will live forever in the hearts of Americans'. He hoped for and imagined and lived and worked and moved for his beloved community. I thank my friend, Reverend Bernice King, who stood by my side and gave a fascinating sermon in one of the most challenging periods of my life. He fought the good fight, he kept the faith," Clinton said. I think it’s important to remember that, first because he's a quick thinker, and secondly because he was here on a mission that was bigger than personal ambition. John Lewis was many things, but he was a man, a friend and sunshine in the storm, a friend who would walk the stony road that he asked you to walk, that would brave the chastening rods he asked you to be whipped by, always keeping his eyes on the prize, always believing none of us would be free until all of us are equal. But on that day, I got him to replay for me a story he told me when we first met back in the 1970s and I said...I was just an aspiring, whatever, Southern politician, and hadn’t been elected governor and he was already a legend. Please read our Comment Policy before commenting. Don’t you realize during the biggest civil rights uprising in a decade you’re radicalizing an entire new generation, now googling “Stokely Carmichael”? He’s not doing himself any favors by saying things like this: Oh Bill, you patronizing old white man responsible for locking up thousands of black men. What’s a young guy who’s about to get his brains beat out and planning on going to prison doing taking that? and all that kind of stuff. I think he figured that if Thomas Merton could find his way and keep his faith and believe in the future, he, John Lewis could too. We honor that memory today because he learned to walk with the wind, to march with others to save a tiny house, because as a young man, he challenged others to join him with love and dignity to hold America’s house down and open the doors of America to all its people. And he said, well, once we were at a demonstration and I got knocked down on the ground and people were getting beat up pretty bad, and there was a man holding up a long, heavy piece of pipe and he lifted it and was clearly gonna bring it right down to my skull. John Lewis was a walking rebuke to people who thought, 'well, we ain’t there yet, we’ve been working a long time, isn’t it time to bag it?' Former President Bill Clinton, along with George W. Bush and Barack Obama, attended Rep. John Lewis' funeral Thursday. pic.twitter.com/Ctu6w0y2on, — Give2BailFunds&MutualAid (@jasonmaragon) July 31, 2020. And I’m so grateful that he stayed true to form. Yoko Ono Sues Ex-John Lennon Aide Again for Allegedly Continuing to... Amazon Says More Than 19,000 Employees Contracted Coronavirus, Doc Rivers Lands Sixers Head Coaching Job After Clippers Exit. Bill Clinton Comes Under Fire For Comments At John Lewis Funeral You Don’t Even Go Here: Bill Clinton Got DRAGGED For Insulting Kwame Ture During John Lewis’ Funeral Posted on July 31, 2020 - Bydaviddtss 1of 11 We've joined the BHM Digital family of websites and have updated our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. And he listened to people that he knew had the same goals say, well, we have to be careful how we say this because we’re trying to get converts, not more adversaries. Now, young people probably think that’s no big deal but there weren’t that many backpacks back then. He cut quite a strange figure: He had a trenchcoat and a backpack. It must have been painful to lose, but he showed as a young man there’s some things that you just cannot do to hang on to a position because if you do, then, you won’t be who you are anymore. He lived by the faith and promise of St. Paul: Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not lose heart. Here is a full transcript of Clinton's remarks. When he could have been angry and determined to cancel his adversaries, he tried to get converts instead. One thing, what would it be?'. B-Ball SZN Fresh: Bel-Air Athletics Launches New “Summer Hoops” Collection, Jade Novah’s Most Hilariously Poppin’ Pop Culture Parodies, Cruisin’ For A Bruisin’: Ari Fletcher Sends Obscene Threat To “Beat The Baby Out” Of Pregnant Rah Ali, Rah Responds Like THIS, President Trump Starts Quarantine After Aide Hope Hicks Gets COVID, Trooper Reportedly On Tape Talking About Beating, Choking Black Man. I am grateful, Pastor Warnock, to say it in Ebenezer, a holy place sanctified by both the faith and the works of those who have worshipped here. pic.twitter.com/Eo1uOI0mST, — francesca quarantini (@franifio) July 31, 2020, “Just three years later, he lost the leadership of SNCC to Stokely Carmichael because it was a pretty good job for a guy that young and come from Troy, Alabama. He’s gone up yonder and left us with marching orders. © 2020 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. He got into a lot of good trouble along the way, but let’s not forget, he developed an absolutely uncanny ability to heal troubled waters. Before him came Bill Clinton who eulogized the activist. But no matter what, John always kept walking to reach the beloved community. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., died at the age of 80 after announcing in December his diagnosis of Stage IV pancreatic cancer after decades of fighting for civil rights and social justice on the frontlines and in the corridors of Congress. Bill has earned the love and trust of a lot of Black Americans but more interrogation of his history has made him more criticized than before. He kept moving. I thank President and Mrs. Bush, President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, thank you and Rep. Hoyer and Rep. Clyburn, who I really thank for with a stroke of a hand, ending an intrafamily fight within our party, proving that peace is needed by everyone.