Rep. John Lewis Looks Back at Path Toward Social Justice

By KAILA STRICKLAND

When on February 27, 1960 a 20-year-old sharcropper’s son named John Lewis was arrested in an Alabama sit-in, his chief worry was about what his parents might think.

“When I got arrested for sitting in with 89 others, I felt free,” the Democratic congressman and civil rights icon told a rapt audience of mostly young students Thursday at an auditorium in SUNY College in Old Westbury where he was joined by veteran journalist Bill Moyers, a former presidential aide to President Lyndon Johnson to discuss “The Future of America”.

At the event the avuncular Lewis showed no signs of slowing down his walk towards social justice. “I’ve been arrested five times and will probably get arrested again for something else,” he said, prompting cheerful applause in the packed Maguire Theater auditorium.

The discussion was moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Les Payne, one of the founders of the National Black Journalists Association and celebrated the college’s 50th anniversary.

Lewis and Moyers traded stories of their experiences during the politically charged 1960’s and what it was like for Moyers assisting, “accidental president”, Johnson following the assassination of John F. Kennedy as Lewis discussed his right hand man role to Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement.

On August 28, 1963, a 29-year old Moyers, then deputy director of the Peace Corps, attended the March on Washington, where King gave his famous, I Have a Dream Speech, and heard the youngest speaker at the event just four slots before King, — 23-year old Lewis.

Lewis, widely regarded as an American hero, was a founder and later became chairman of the historic Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1963 to 1966. When he sat down to relate his story to college students he emphasized the hard work and strategy necessary in the fight.

“We didn’t wake up one day and decide to do sit-ins,” he said. “We didn’t say we’re going to march. We planned. We did non-violence training. We studied obedience to be more like Ghandi in India.”

Moyers, who at the beginning of the year, wrapped up his third and presumably final retirement from his award-winning PBS show, Moyers and Company, gave a nod to his long running stint. “If you want to see the best conversation between us you can watch it on Moyers and Company,” said Moyers, prompting laughter.

Before the Voting Rights Act in 1965, passing literacy tests to register to vote was the standard. In Alabama, black people had to pass tests where according to that episode of his show Moyers referenced in, John Lewis Marches On, “On one occasion a man was asked to count the number of bubbles in a bar of soap, on another occasion a man was asked to count the number of jellybeans in a jar,” said Lewis, only to be denied the right to vote despite the results of the test.

Moyers recalled asking former president Lyndon Johnson if he thought there would ever be a black president. “Not before a woman is president,” said Johnson, according to Moyers. “I wonder what he would have said in 2008.”
The two told their powerful stories, all to the students’ glee, showing that political action can benefit the next generation and help change unfold.