TUESDAY, JULY 28 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
with thousands in March across
the Edmund Pettus Bridge in
Selma, Ala. That’s where police
beat Lewis to the ground in 1965,
an event that led to passage of
the Voting Rights Act.
Lewis has regularly attended
that annual march, but this year
his participation was a question
because of his illness. Then, he
“almost magically appeared in
the middle of the bridge,” Gupta
said. “He stirred us into action.”
What disturbs her is “for
Senate Republicans to engage in
performative mourning of Mr.
Lewis while obstructing
everything that he stood for. I
think it is really deplorable.”
His death has made his
supporters even more focused on
getting the latest voting rights
legislation passed.
“We’re going to give it all we
got. John Lewis wouldn’t want
us to do it any other way,” said
Thompson, who met Lewis in
the 1960s when both were
members of the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee. “I feel obligated to
give it all the gusto I have.”
[email protected]wrote to Barr.
That formula required certain
states and jurisdictions to secure
Justice Department approval
before making changes that
affect voting. The Voting Rights
Advancement Act, which the
House approved in December,
would rectify the court’s action if
the legislation, due to be named
after Lewis, becomes law. So far,
the Republican-controlled
Senate has not voted on the bill.
Urging approval of the
legislation, Lewis told a news
conference last year that the
original law was gutted because
“there are forces in this country
that want to keep American
citizens from having a rightful
say in the future of our nation.... I am deeply and very
concerned about the future of
our democracy. It seems like the
lights are about to go out.”
For civil rights activists, the
Trump administration has been
a depressing time, though not
one of inaction.
Vanita Gupta, president and
CEO of the Leadership
Conference on Civil and Human
Rights, remembers marching
Thompson took office as mayor
in 1973.
“ We wouldn’t be here if it
weren’t for the Voting Rights
Act,” he said when I interviewed
him there two years later.
N ow, Thompson represents
that congressional district in the
House, where he chairs the
Homeland Security Committee.
He recalls using the Voting
Rights Act in successful
challenges to Mississippi officials
who tried to block his election as
city alderman and then mayor.
“The Voting Rights Act took
away many of the barriers to
African Americans registering to
vote,” Thompson said Thursday.
Thinking of Lewis’s work,
Thompson described himself as
“a real beneficiary of his lifetime
of advocacy.”
That advocacy continued until
Lewis’s dying day.
Lewis was an adamant
supporter of legislation to fix the
Voting Rights Act gutted by the
Supreme Court decision. That
decision “destroyed what I
considered to be the heart and
soul of the Voting Rights Act —
the preclearance formula,” heby a 2013 Supreme Court
decision.
That decision took away a
crucial tool available 45 years
ago, when Lewis ran the Voter
Education Project in Atlanta.
That’s when I interviewed him
for a three-part series in the
now-defunct Philadelphia
Evening Bulletin on the status of
voting rights a decade into the
law. (Thank you to the Library of
Congress for finding the clips.)
Lewis was organizing black
voter registration efforts across
the South. Fear and hesitancy
remained in black communities
that faced lynchings, bombings
and terror from racists intent on
maintaining a power structure
based on white supremacy.
During a 1975 voter
registration rally in Iberville
Parish, La., Lewis recalled a 31-
year-old black woman telling
him, “I cannot go out and
register, I cannot go out and
vote, because they kill all our
leaders.”
Yet success stories were
growing.
One was in Bolton, Miss., a
tiny town where Bennie G.this [Justice] Department’s
touting of minimal, sub-
standard actions as it seemingly
deserts its mission to uphold
voting rights laws,” he
complained in a letter to
Attorney General William Barr,
just three weeks before Lewis
died on July 17, at age 80, after
being diagnosed with pancreatic
cancer.
“A rampant war is being
waged against minorities’ voting
rights... but the Department of
Justice is failing to show up for
duty,” Lewis added. “It is a shame
and a disgrace.”
Justice and the White House
did not respond to requests for
comment.
Lewis will lie in state at the
U.S. Capitol on T uesday. His
funeral will be Thursday at
Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist
Church, where the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr. preached.
Lewis was a constant in the
tough, unending battle to make
America the democracy it
struggles to be. That battle
includes legislative efforts to
restore the power of the Voting
Rights Act that was evisceratedAs mourners
honor the courage
that earned Rep.
John Lewis his
reputation as the
conscience of
Congress, there is
another
characteristic that
stands out for
those who knew
him from his days
as a young civil rights activist.
Consistency.
Lewis, a Georgia Democrat,
was among the most persistent
and unwavering voices in the
fight for African American
voting rights.
“It’s still a source of pain that
the Voting Rights Act has not
been more actively enforced,”
Lewis told me in 1975, 10 years
after passage of the law.
Fifty-five years after passage,
Lewis was still feeling that pain
— during a period when
President Trump denounces
voting by mail and Republican
officials use black voter
suppression as an electoral
tactic.
“It is heartbreaking to witness
Over a half-century, John Lewis’s commitment to voting rights never wavered
Federal
Insider
JOE
DAVIDSON
BY PAUL KANE,
FELICIA SONMEZ,
MEAGAN FLYNN AND
MICHAEL BRICE-SADDLERJohn Lewis made his final trip
Monday to the Capitol, where law-
makers paid tribute to the late
congressman and delivered a
standing ovation when a record-
ing of his booming voice — a
clarion call for racial justice —
echoed through the Rotunda.
Lewis (D-Ga.), who died July 17
at the age of 80 of cancer, will lie in
state for two days at the Capitol,
where the nation has honored
past presidents, lawmakers and
other distinguished citizens.
“It is fitting that John Lewis
joins this pantheon of patriots,
resting upon the same catafalque
as President Abraham Lincoln,”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-
Calif.) said at the memorial event,
which was marked by speeches,
an emotional rendering of “Amaz-
ing Grace” and tears.
“We knew that he always
worked on the side of the angels —
and now, we know that he is with
them,” she said of Lewis, adding
that he always “understood the
power of young people to change
the future.”
Lewis’s voice — urging young
graduates to “get in the way” and
find a way to get in “good trouble,
necessary trouble” — filled the
Rotunda as a recording of his 2014
speech at Emory University’s
commencement ceremony was
played. Afterward, Pelosi sum-
moned all those present to stand
and applaud.
Members of the House and
Senate — most masked because of
the coronavirus pandemic — Su-
preme Court Justice Sonia Soto-
mayor, members of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, Defense Secretary
Mark T. Esper and congressional
aides quietly streamed past the
flag-draped casket, which was
moved to the top of the East Front
steps Monday evening for the
public to pay tribute.
Vice President Pence, a former
House colleague of Lewis’s, paid
his respects, accompanied by his
wife, Karen, as did presumptive
Democratic presidential nominee
Joe Biden, the former vice presi-
dent and Delaware senator. Biden
and his wife, Jill, paused with
hands over their hearts and also
placed their hands on the casket.
President Trump, whom Lewis
publicly clashed with and de-
clared “illegitimate,” told report-
ers outside the White House on
Monday that he would not be
attending the memorial events.
The son of sharecroppers, Lew-
is fought for civil rights, nearly
dying at the age of 25 when he led
about 600 protesters in a march
across the Edmund Pettus Bridge
in Selma, Ala. State troopers beat
the demonstrators, and Lewis suf-
fered a cracked skull on what
became known as Bloody Sunday.
Within months, however, Pres-
ident Lyndon B. Johnson signed
the Voting Rights Act of 1965,
meant to end the obstacles pre-
venting black people from voting.
The tributes at the Capitol
came shortly after Lewis’s body
made its last visit to Washington’s
civil rights landmarks, pausing at
the Lincoln Memorial, where he
was the youngest speaker at the
1963 March on Washington. The
motorcade also stopped at the
Martin Luther King Jr. memorial,
and the newly minted Black Lives
Matter Plaza outside the White
House, where he made his last
public appearance in early June.More than two dozen people
lined the King memorial a waiting
the motorcade. Among them was
Jackie Smith, 63, who had left
home in Raleigh, N.C., at 5:30 a.m.
to pay his respects to Lewis.
“He meant a lot to me as an
African American,” Smith said,
describing Lewis as his role mod-
el. “He was someone who, as he
said, got into ‘good trouble,’ and a
person who believed you could
get a lot done without violence.”
Many brought their children.
Stephanie Cornish, 42, said sherented the documentary “John
Lewis: Good Trouble” so her 12-
year-old daughter would under-
stand the gravity of his loss and
legacy before traveling from Bow-
ie to see his funeral procession.
Led by a fleet of 16 motorcycles,
the hearse slowed to a stop just
ahead of the memorial to Lewis’s
friend and mentor in the civil
rights movement.
Sean Kennedy was welling up.
“I’ve had these emotions since
he passed and I kind of internal-
ized them. I felt I just had to be
here today without question,”
said the 55-year-old from Bethes-
da.
Hundreds also gathered at
Black Lives Matter Plaza to watch
the m otorcade pass through one
of the city’s newest landmarks.
There, Janet Purnell, 65, danced
and blew bubbles at the center ofthe plaza, just feet from where
Lewis stood during his final pub-
lic appearance last month.
Purnell, who has lived in the
District for more than 34 years,
said what she admired most
about Lewis was that he fought
tirelessly for others until his
death. The reason she attended
Monday’s procession, she said,
was simple.
“I just had to be here to honor
this human being,” she said. “I
wanted to be in his presence one
last time.”As the crowds swelled into the
afternoon, a speaker system
blared audio of Lewis’s 1963
speech at the March on Washing-
ton. When his motorcade paused
at the center of the plaza, some
raised their fists and others put
their hands on their hearts — but
most could only stop and stare.
Among those who watched in
amazement was Mariel Collazo
Schwietert, age 10, who traveled
with her family from New York to
see the procession.
“We’re still fighting over rights
that we should’ve seen solved a
long time ago,” she said. “I don’t
know why we’re still doing this
now.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser
(D) also stopped at the plaza to
pay tribute — telling reporters
after the procession that she had a
chance to talk to Lewis’s familyand relay how much he meant to
the city.
Asked about his legacy, Bowser
said a fitting way to honor Lewis’s
life would be for Congress to re-
store protections of the Voting
Rights Act via a bill the House
passed in December.
In the days since Lewis’s death,
there have been renewed calls for
Congress to act on voting rights.
In 2013, the Supreme Court invali-
dated a crucial component of the
1965 law, ruling that Congress had
not taken into account the na-
tion’s racial progress when citing
certain states for federal over-
sight. The House passed legisla-
tion in December to restore those
protections, but the bill has lan-
guished in the GOP-led Senate.
“An honor to his life would be
that the Senate pass the voting
rights act that they’re sitting on,”
Bowser said.
Ahead of the memorial service,
the House unanimously approved
a measure renaming H.R. 4, the
voting rights bill, after Lewis.
Lewis is only the second black
lawmaker to lie in state in the
Capitol, after his close friend,
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.),
who died in October, lay in state in
National Statuary Hall.
About 110 to 120 seats were
spaced out in the cavernous Ro-
tunda, about a third or less than
would normally be on hand for an
arrival ceremony. Members of the
Congressional Black Caucus, seat-
ed in the southern half of the
room, occupied about half the
allotted space. Many CBC mem-
bers were wearing black masks
with white lettering r eading
“Good Trouble” in honor of Lew-
is’s personal motto.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell (R-Ky.) led membersof the GOP in honoring Lewis, a
group that included House Mi-
nority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-
Calif.), House Minority Whip
Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Sen. Da-
vid Perdue (Ga.).
McConnell recalled hearing
Lewis speak at the March on
Washington more than 50 years
ago and said Lewis “lived and
worked with urgency because the
task was urgent.”
“But even though the world
around him gave him every cause
for bitterness, he stubbornly
treated everyone with respect and
love,” McConnell said.
When the ceremony ended, the
House and Senate sergeants at
arms coordinated a receiving line
in which VIPs could pay their final
respects to Lewis, beginning with
his son — John-Miles Lewis —
standing before his father’s coffin.
The rest of the Lewis family, ac-
companied by his longtime chief
of staff, Michael Collins, then cir-
cled the casket and said goodbye.
The public has been prohibited
from entering the buildings of the
Capitol complex since mid-March
because of the pandemic, so Lew-
is’s coffin was positioned at the
top of the center steps of the
Capitol, just outside the Rotunda,
Monday evening. The public was
able to walk up to the bottom of
those steps, with social distancing
and mask-wearing requirements.
Lewis is scheduled to be flown to
Atlanta to lie in state Wednesday
in the Georgia Capitol ahead of a
funeral at Ebenezer Baptist
Church, the historic black church
where King preached.
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
michael.brice-
[email protected]Solemn, emotional tributes as Lewis lies in state at Capitol
“But even though the world around him gave him
every cause for bitterness, he stubbornly treated
everyone with respect and love.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)BY SEAN SULLIVAN
AND PAUL KANEJoe Biden traveled to Washing-
ton on Monday to pay his re-
spects to the late congressman
John Lewis, a high-profile tribute
to a civil rights icon at a time
when a renewed wave of racial
justice protests is echoing those
led by Lewis almost 60 years ago.
The visit came the same day
President Trump said he would
not go to the Capitol to pay
tribute to Lewis, and it briefly
brought Biden face to face with at
least one of his potential running
mates, Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.).
The presumptive Democratic
presidential nominee and his
wife, Jill Biden, visited Lewis as
he lies in state at the U.S. Capitol.
For the Bidens, the trip marked a
rare public appearance outside
their home state of Delaware,
given the restrictions of the coro-
navirus pandemic.
The Bidens entered the Capitol
Rotunda just before 5:30 p.m.
and were escorted to the casket
by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
(D-Calif.). They talked with Pelosi
for almost 10 minutes, their first
in-person meeting since Biden
became the presumptive nomi-
nee and the pandemic upended
political life.
The Bidens, both wearing
black face masks, placed their
right hands on Lewis’s casket,
then Joe Biden made the sign of
the cross and the two walked
down the hall to Pelosi’s office.
The former vice president did not
join a meeting underway in the
office between Democratic lead-
ers and Trump administration
officials on the latest coronavirus
relief effort.
Biden’s visit marked a contrast
with Trump, who said Monday
that he did not intend to visit the
Capitol to commemorate Lewis.
“I won’t be going,” Trump told
reporters.
That contrast in some ways
reflects the candidates’ differing
attitudes toward the current ra-
cial justice protests. Lewis, a
youthful leader of the 1960s civil
rights movement who organized
marches and endured beatings,
has been cited by today’s activists
as a forerunner and inspiration.
Biden has voiced support for
the current protesters, while
steering clear of some of their
demands, such as defunding the
police. Trump, however, has
sharply criticized them, depict-
ing many as bent on violence and
destruction.
Biden’s travel came amid a
busy period for his campaign,
which on Sunday urged support-
ers to gear up for the 100-day
stretch to the election. The Dem-
ocrat has said he is hoping to
choose a running mate by early
August.
After leaving Pelosi’s office,
Biden ran into a group of Demo-
crats paying their respects to
Lewis — including Bass, one of
the lawmakers under consider-
ation to be his running mate.Biden and Bass chatted amiably
for a few minutes, as other digni-
taries looked on.
Biden was asked about Bass
and joked that he asked her to be
his running mate and she had
said no. Later, Bass walked out
with Biden and Rep. Cedric L.
Richmond (D-La.), a national co-
chair of his campaign.
On top of choosing a running
mate, Biden is also ramping uphis efforts to win support in key
states.
B iden’s campaign on Monday
launched a $14.5 million adver-
tising investment in Florida, Ari-
zona, Wisconsin, Michigan,
North Carolina and Pennsylva-
nia, according to a memo issued
by his campaign and obtained by
The Washington Post. Trump
won all six states in 2016, and
they have been focal points of theBiden campaign’s commercials.
With two newly released ads,
Biden is seeking to capitalize on
eroding support for Trump
among older voters. A minute-
long TV spot features a woman
talking about how her grand-
mother died after battling covid-
19, the disease caused by the
novel coronavirus. The woman
argued that elderly people like
her grandmother have not beenpriorities for the Trump adminis-
tration.
As the coronavirus has become
a dominant topic of debate in the
race, the pandemic is limiting the
candidates’ abilities to hold tra-
ditional events. Biden’s visit to
the Capitol came amid tightening
post-travel restrictions in Wash-
ington.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser
recently imposed new regula-
tions for travel to and from “high-
risk areas,” which include Dela-
ware. A spokeswoman for the
mayor suggested the regulations
did not apply to Biden.
“Government activity is essen-
tial, and the Capitol of the United
States is exempt from the Mayor’s
Order,” Bowser press secretary
Susana Castillo said in a state-
ment.
Biden’s trip also put him in
proximity to some of the other
women he has been vetting as
potential running mates. Several
attended a ceremony paying trib-
ute to Lewis in the Capitol hours
before his arrival.
Sens. Kamala D. Harris (D-Ca-
lif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-
Mass.), along with Bass and Rep.
Val Demings (D-Fla.) — all of
whom have received consider-
ation by the Biden campaign to
join the ticket — attended the
ceremony.
No former lawmakers were
permitted to attend the socially
distant service, so Biden, a for-
mer senator, was not on hand.
After the ceremony, the casket
remained in the Rotunda, allow-
ing Biden and other VIPs to visit.
[email protected]
[email protected]Former vice president pays respects amid renewed racial justice protests
MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST/POOL
Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, pay tribute to John Lewis on Monday at the Capitol. Their visit was a stark
contrast to the response of President Trump, who said he didn’t intend to go to the Capitol.Rare outing also brings
Biden face to face with
potential running mates