On March 7, 1965, John Lewis was attacked and beaten by Alabama State Troopers as he and a group of protesters attempted to cross Edmund Pettis Bridge in an incident that became known as Bloody Sunday.
Now a 76-year-old congressman since 1987, John Lewis quipped to a large class of Law Graduates at the King School of Law, named for his mentor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that he has been arrested 40 times during the civil rights movement, five since he became a congressman, and he figures he will be arrested again. While his message was upbeat during the address, he told reporters after the commencement that he worries about the nation, going forward, and in particular about the driving factors of dissent in the presidential election.
He said he loved coming to a university like this “where there is so much hope, so much optimism.”
Congressman Lewis was clearly moved as he described being able to touch the statue at King Hall, made in honor of Dr. Martin Luther, Jr. “If it wasn’t for Martin Luther King, Jr., I wouldn’t be standing up here,” he said. “He helped free the black people.”
He told the graduating class, “You’re needed more than before. You must be headlines and not taillights.”
John Lewis described his days with the freedom rides and even before, when he saw signs that separated the white man from the colored man. He said he asked his parents and teachers why, and “they said, that’s the way it is. Don’t get in the way. Don’t get in trouble.”
He said, “But individuals like Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks and so many others – it’s time for me to tell you something, I’ve gotten in trouble, big trouble, necessary trouble. As young lawyers, you have a moral obligation, a mission and a mandate to get in trouble, to get involved, to make the world, this little real estate we call earth, a better place for all human kind. You can do it and you must do it.”
“It’s because of the movement, the civil rights, the social justice, the women’s rights, the farmers, the gay rights, the immigrants’ rights that we’ve come a distance,” he said. “But we still have a great distance to go.”
John Lewis continued, “You heard me say I’ve been arrested a few times. Yes. I went to jail. Forty times in the 60s and five more times since I’ve been to congress. I’m probably going to get arrested again some day,” he said. “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you must stand up, speak up, and speak out.”
He told the group of aspiring lawyers that, without lawyers, the civil rights movement would not have been possible. He talked about the colored signs he saw. “Those signs are gone today,” he said, and “the only place our children and their children will see those signs will be in a book. In a museum. On a video.”
“Just a few short years ago, in the states of the Confederacy, many children could not register to vote simply because of the color of their skin,” the congressman said. “There are still forces in America today that are trying to make it harder and more difficult for people to participate in a Democratic process.”
He called the vote “the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a Democratic society, and we must use it.”
John Lewis told the graduates, “I gave a little blood on that bridge to Selma. I had a concussion. I thought I was going to die, I thought I saw death.” But somehow and in some way, they were able to get through, and congress passed the voting rights act. President Lyndon Johnson signed it into law.
He said, “We’ve come a distance (as a society). We’ve made a lot of progress, but we’re not quite there yet.”
He told reporters after the commencement that he sleeps well at night and doesn’t have any ill effects from that experience. But he said, “It’s impossible to forget that day when we crossed that bridge – we were orderly, peaceful, there was men, women, and little children. I still cannot understand why Governor George C. Wallace wanted to give the order to the troops. He said that there were men waiting on the other side of the bridge prepared to kill us. I said, brother, do you fear people? And he didn’t have an answer.”
He said it was impossible to forget what happened. “We had a constitutional right to march that day.”
While John Lewis expressed a message of optimism, it is clear that he was concerned by the mood of the country. “I worry about this attempt to divide the American people based on race and class and sexual orientation,” he said. “I’m deeply concerned about the future of our country.”
He said, “I said earlier today we need to be headlights and not taillights.” Mr. Lewis noted, “I hear people say we want our country back – do we want to go back or do we want to go forward? Don’t we want to make progress? Don’t we want to continue to bring people together and lay down the burden of class and race?”
He noted that we are a land of immigrants and he quoted A. Phillip Randolph from the 1963 March on Washington: “’Maybe our forefathers and foremothers all came to this great land on different ships, but we are all in the same boat now.’ That’s still true today.”
He said that he saw progress in the debate on police tactics. He noted that, in congress, “there’s a great deal of discussion in a formal way between Democrats and some Republicans, in the Senate as well as the House, that they need to get a handle as to what is going on with the police departments all around America.”
He said that we have to fix it the same way that they had non-violent workshops and discussions during the 1950s and 60s, and he wants to see the community and police officers sit down and talk. “Get to know each other better,” he said.
John Lewis said, “I don’t know what is happening” in terms of the tone that we seem to have reverted to in recent years, particularly around the presidential campaign.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
John Lewis was truly the highlight of the commencement….next to the excitement of seeing my former staff member and hopefully soon-to-be daughter-in-law’s obtaining her law degree at the same commencement!
Compare THAT to the chat where Acting Chancello Hexter starts off by saying he is going to be short to leave enough time for the others and rambles on boringly for way too long….
The consensus at the family party afterwards is that there was one speech too many….he he
I have to agree.
Why does everything always have to be about race?
I should have asked him that question. I wonder what he would have said.
You should ask yourself that question too.
I think his answer and my answer would be similar: things have improved, but we are still divided by race and there is still work to be done.
And the cottage industry of keeping it stirred up……..
I’ll share this here:
Great picture and one I am sure you will cherish !
“Now a 76-year-old congressman since 1987, John Lewis quipped to a large class of Law Graduates at the King School of Law, named for his mentor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that he has been arrested 40 times during the civil rights movement, five since he became a congressman, and he figures he will be arrested again. While his message was upbeat during the address, he told reporters after the commencement that he worries about the nation, going forward, and in particular about the driving factors of dissent in the presidential election.”
Sorry – but I worry what sort of message this guy is sending students. Don’t be afraid to break the law to get what you want? How about a more positive message like: Work within in the law to effect positive change? The bottom line is if everyone acted on this guy’s message, anarchy would reign…
Isn’t one of the lessons of the civil rights movement that civil disobedience, ie. the strategic but intentional breaking of an unjust law, can be an effective tool for social change?
Civil disobedience is a double-edged sword, as we saw in the Rodney King riots for example. Civil disobedience is one step away from uncivil disobedience, which often causes death and destruction. Even though it may be a slower course of action, it is worth trying to work within the system first. However, this guy seems to wear the civil disobedience badge with unmitigated pride – which sends the wrong message to young people IMO. Essentially what he is saying is resort to civil disobedience to get what you want. I did it, and look where I got! You can get there too! Personally, I don’t think that is a healthy message to be sending. I am not a big fan of civil disobedience – I was on the receiving end of it at one time, and it was ugly, nasty, cruel and completely unjust. But that is what can happen when civil disobedience occurs – anarchy that makes things out of control.
nameless: Civil disobedience is a double-edged sword, as we saw in the Rodney King riots for example. Civil disobedience is one step away from uncivil disobedience, which often causes death and destruction.
I don’t see the Rodney King riots as civil disobedience that MLK would have condoned. I always saw his style of civil disobedience as eschewing destruction of property and physically harming people.
The civil disobedience he’s referring to was the breaking of unjust laws that were clearly discriminatory. Walking across a bridge wasn’t illegal, but he was beaten severely for it. Sitting politely at a lunch counter shouldn’t have been illegal, but it was then for black people. Helping people register to vote was not illegal, but people died while doing that. He isn’t encouraging lawlessness and anarchy, but a thoughtful effort to decline to follow laws that are clearly unjust.
what he said took true courage….some lived and some died…..so did many in many other countries….
anyone who marched and stood up and protested in the 60s was at risk.
I was one of the few whites marching with my black friends….and was in the middle of many a riot which would break out due to police brutality…. think any of THAT has changed?
do you think my parents knew where I was and what I was doing as I cut school and hitchiked with a girlfriend or by myself if I couldn’t talk anyone into coming along…… to where the action was? I was a teen in the 60s…..
civil unrest becomes uncivil unrest if vested interests are egging things on…..such as unions, the military, the police and so forth…
my sons were never ones to protest….until something hit close to home…then they were all over it….
long live people’s park, the victims of Kent State and so forth….fortunately, I spent most of my younger life in SF…..and likely unfortunately for some…
nameless
You are correct about civil disobedience being a two edge sword. And I would point out that I cannot think of a single incidence in which civil disobedience has been resorted to when there has not been previous efforts to go through what you would consider more appropriate channels. It is only when those channels are repeatedly ignored or blocked that people resort to civil disobedience. If you can cite an example of civil disobedience with no prior attempt to work through established channels, I will acknowledge.
Furthermore, you characterize “civil disobedience” as a means to “get their way” ignoring that “their way” is often nothing more than the attempt to gain the same rights that are already enjoyed by other groups. One might also characterize this as the righting of an injustice. I am at a loss to see why anyone should be denied the same rights as are given to others in a system supposedly based on laws and justice.
I believe that “this guy” as you call him ,won through his own blood, and courage, the right to wear his civil disobedience as a badge of honor. It is a shame that many of the proponents of justice in the south lost their lives in this struggle for just treatment and thus lost their ability to wear their “badge of honor” for their lives which were cut short by the violence and bigotry of those in power.
“I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air…. A riot is the language of the unheard.” – MLK Jr.
the draft is coming back and women are going to be drafted this time…..canada and mexico better lock THEIR borders…mexico is already….
for those who think I am simply a conspiracy theorist…..just read your history books and watch some utubes…
under Obama we have become increasingly the “haves” and “have nots”…. for the many generations in the deep south where hardly a male has worked for decades….ask them how much better their lives are….on their obamaphones and so forth…..but how many have a job and a livelihood and hope for the future?
Obama did not do what he said the first time around and his policies have only helped the rich get richer and the middle class sink poorer….and the poor, well really is anyone poor ANY better off?
and there are very few white boys in the military now and perhaps even more women than men…
but not enough for what the military is gearing up for now….thus the draft
Not at all true on both accounts. Our military is @ 70% white and @ 85% male.
and YOU were in the military recently? my stepson just did 2 tours in Iraq and is now a NJ state trooper…..
please provide the link for your statistics…
at all events my husband and I flew to, including when he was graduating from Basic training, and then specialized training and when he came back from a tour, it didn’t appear it was mostly white…. a higher % of women perhaps were white
do you think that UCD is mostly white now also?
(actually UCD is way more rainbow in colors and genders than the typical “white”)..
.
I too have have military family and have spent much time on military bases, both Air Force and Army. What I saw were mostly white males.
http://www.statisticbrain.com/demographics-of-active-duty-u-s-military/
BP
Thanks for posting the military stats.
Do you have similar stats to back your assertions about UCD ?
Yes Tia, here’s a link that shows only 28% of UCD students are white and only 41% are male.
https://www.ucdavis.edu/sites/default/files/upload/files/uc-davis-student-profile.pdf
Now here’s a link that shows that California is 38.5% white and near 50% male.
http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/06
I’ve discussed this several times on here. At UCD whites and males are underrepresented in correlation to California’s demographics.
I’m curious if you ever expressed the same concern when other groups were underrepresented at UC?
That’s funny that you would attempt to turn that on me because I’ve brought up this point when liberals and the Vanguard talk about how some minorities are underrepresented at UCD and in the DJUSD AIM programs but you don’t hear a peep out of them when it’s pointed out that whites and males are also underreprensented.
BP wrote:
> I’ve discussed this several times on here. At UCD whites and males
> are underrepresented in correlation to California’s demographics.
It is interesting that the top CA public schools (Cal, UCLA, UCD) seem to want to avoid dropping the percentage of white males in to the single digits (using BPs numbers above UCD is at 11% white males). My white male nephews are at Cal and have told me that the number is about the same, but they said that less that 10% of the white males are from California since the out of state kids that pay about three times as much are on average whiter and richer than the average Cal student). Both of my nephews graduated in the top 1% of their classes and has top 1/10th of one percent SAT scores and said that none of their top 5% percent white friends got in to Cal or UCLA, but their black and Hispanic friends in the top 30% of the class with top 20% SAT scores all got in…
http://www.statisticbrain.com/demographics-of-active-duty-u-s-military/
thank you for this…did you happen to find a date for when these were compiled?
Not long ago the US government posted statistics from 3 years ago on another topic which I am following.
I will ponder something else then, of the people who were sent to Iraq and who were part of the NJ National Guard, most of the ones who flew back and we welcomed were NOT white…
If this statistic is truly current and accurate, I would venture that the white boys are stationed in Germany and Iceland…..and such and NOT heading to combat…
Now those would be some interesting statistics to glean…
due to all the hands up women have received over the years, most universities and colleges are heavy on the women…..and if you are NOT a first generation anything, then even the women are being looked past….unless they are a minority of the kind which the UC still considers a minority…..
“Civil disobedience is one step away from uncivil disobedience, which often causes death and destruction.”
Its a big step. Arguing against one because of the other is foolish.
John Lewis was awesome even in the cheap seats it was worth attending. The best speech was from the Law Faculty speaker, absolutely brilliant.
What I found interesting about Hexter is how he is everything Katehi wasn’t. He studied classics, she science. He seemed a humanist, she was authoritarian. I can see why she hired him as a counterbalance to herself. Too bad she didn’t listen to him more. Too bad he defended her until the bitter end.
ahhhh misanthrop….if you don’t know….most of the Chancellor’s true friends do not need to defend her as she did little, if anything, wrong….if SHE had better advisors and staff managers she would not even be in this predicament……
the woman sitting nearby who has a PhD AND a law degree was reciting the second poem along with Hexter and she was the first to say that his speech wasn’t useful…
His speech wasn’t scintillating I agree. But as someone who doesn’t get to meet these people I was struck by how he had a CV that was academically opposite of Katehi’s.
and why have you “never get to meet these people”………
Marina
“If this statistic is truly current and accurate, I would venture that the white boys are stationed in Germany and Iceland…..and such and NOT heading to combat…
Now those would be some interesting statistics to glean…”
I believe that your willingness to “venture” this without having supportive data reflects your own biases and says more about you than it dies about the military’s criteria for duty assignments.
Ready for it Tia? I totally agree with you.
My son was a doctor at Landstuhl Army hospital in Germany which served as a triage and stabelization stop before sending injured troops back to the states. Once again I used to see mostly white male soldiers in the halls when I would visit him. My grand daughter was also born in that hospital.
Here’s the demographics of soldiers killed in Iraq. White male deaths at 75% are actually higher than their military representation.
Here’s a link to the numbers of Iraq deaths by ethnicity.
http://usiraq.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000671
that is your evidence Mr. BP: charts from 2008?
that is ancient history in my world…..
and were you able to find the date on the prior statistics you were also posing as current?
BP
“Ready for it Tia? I totally agree with you.”
Shocking though it may seem, when there are actually objective facts rather than pseudo facts presented by extremists on either end of the political spectrum you and I tend to see things similarly. Where we often disagree is on the interpretation of events as opposed to actual numeric fact.
I was however glad that I was seated when I read your post ; )
and you must be a brain surgeon, right, Tia….not that there is anything wrong with that either….
hit the wrong button on my reply and now don’t feel like retyping…..keep trying to pigeon hole me and my biases, Tia… you may be right a fraction of the time…
Marina
I am not pigeon holing you at all. You are doing that all of your own accord when you post unsubstantiated opinions and slurs of others. ( I consider the charge of fraud a slur). I don’t like unsubstantiated claims. I am not attacking you. I am attacking the practice of putting a strong opinion, especially a negative one, out there with no basis in fact presented.
Heck, I don’t even like it when I do it. Ask hpierce or Anon. Both will tell you have I have either apologized, given a partial retraction or reiterated my statement with support for my opinion as I felt was warranted when they have rightfully called me out on supposition or error in my posts.
how many decades ago is your ancient history Mr. Barack Palin?
were you there with me and my husband when we flew to the east coast a couple of years ago and welcomed the guys and women back……
THAT group from NJ was a very broad mix of colors and a very high percentage of women..
do I need to see statistics when I am on campus nearly 24/7 since 1970 to see that the women outnumber the boys…and do I have to look at a piece of paper to see that the number of students in a a typical class my faculty teach are heavy on the girls and most persons are of color?
that, is why I said what I did….and truly wonder how that statistic could be correct…. I mean about the service
My UCD demographic stats are from 2015 and the military stats are from two articles dated in 2013.
But I guess you feel your experience of “my husband when we flew to the east coast a couple of years ago and welcomed the guys and women back……THAT group from NJ was a very broad mix of colors and a very high percentage of women” is statistically more accurate than the actual data.
if you say the article was from 2013….but the dates on the charts END at 2008….
please provide actual and current data…..how about that?
you seem to have a need to tell me I am full of it…..and I am not denying that….but….
Did you look at the date on the bottom of the military demographics link?
http://www.statisticbrain.com/demographics-of-active-duty-u-s-military/
Just read it and admit you’re wrong.
who was I accusing of fraud here?
Marina
“who was I accusing of fraud here?”
No one here. I was referencing your accusations of fraud in the campaigns of Cecelia Aquiar – Curry and Bill Dodd.
anyone can find the UCD stats since 2015…..now that the Chancellor spent some money recently to update the website and improve the search optimization….
the military statistics are covered up much better…
a REAL activist with many decades of practice is the best at investigating and instigating…and on to the next thing….
who has time to sit around and proofcheck and do ddgs…….
even caught the DV moderator come out against an early morning post of mine, and I ignored it and he removed it.when someone else told him what I said was correct…
…had to do with Dodd and Yamada….
on that one I didn’t scroll all the way down…and asked you to tell me… did you tell me, no I had to scroll…. that one said Nov 2015….and so why were the OTHER charts ending at 2008? those I DID open…
if anything if the other charts were current, that would answer the question and my conjecture also…
makes me wonder why the military is covering up THOSE numbers… I am sure they keep them…
The Iraqi death totals are from 2008, the war in Iraq has pretty much wound down after that point so those figures are pretty accurate. That would be like saying you needed a current article if someone had cited civil war deaths which would be the same today or an article wrttien 50 years ago.
Wow, so much nonsense, self-aggrandizement and bile. Hard to believe it comes from the second most educated town in America. Good article and love the picture, David.