Rep. John Lewis speaks during a 2016 Congressional Gold Medal ceremony in honor of those who marched from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
John Lewis, the civil rights icon and congressman from Georgia, announced on Sunday that he has Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Despite the grim diagnosis, he said he will return to Washington to carry on with his work and undergo treatment.
“I have been in some kind of fight—for freedom, equality, basic human rights—for nearly my entire life,” Lewis said in a statement. “I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now.” But while he said he was “clear-eyed” about his situation, he insisted he had a “fighting chance.”
So I have decided to do what I know to do and do what I have always done: I am going to fight it and keep fighting for the Beloved Community. We still have many bridges to cross.
To my constituents: being your representative in Congress is the honor of a lifetime. I will return to Washington in coming days to continue our work and begin my treatment plan, which will occur over the next several weeks. I may miss a few votes during this period, but with God’s grace I will be back on the front lines soon.
The news sparked an outpouring of grief and support from the country’s most prominent political and civil rights figures. Some focused optimistically on Lewis’ “fighting spirit.” Among those were former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., expressed sadness but also hope.
The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, which was started by Coretta Scott King and which is now headed by Bernice King, also shared a Civil Rights Era photo of the congressman.
Some spoke to being personally inspired by Lewis’ bravery and commitment to justice.
Politicians from both parties spoke of his strength:
As did many presidential candidates:
While most politicians responded to the news with tributes to Lewis’ character, some pundits pointed out that one person was one notably quiet. President Donald Trump, who tweeted twice on Sunday about “Crazy Nancy Pelosi” and who famously said in 2017 that Lewis was “all talk” and “no action,” has not said anything publicly about the news.
Lewis, the son of sharecroppers who became one of the most prominent figures of the civil rights movement, has represented his Atlanta district since 1987. During the 1960s, he was one of the original Freedom Riders and became the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He organized sit-ins and other protests, and was among the six civil rights leaders who organized the 1963 March on Washington. He was arrested and assaulted multiple times in different protests, and his skull was fractured from the violent 1965 “Bloody Sunday” assault by law enforcement on marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. He has been called “the conscience of the U.S. Congress” and has continued to urge his supporters to get into “good trouble.”
from Slate Magazine https://ift.tt/2rHyAXJ
via IFTTT
沒有留言:
張貼留言