John Lewis and the power of love
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The first time John Lewis went to the library, he was told it was "for whites only, not the colored," he recounts at the book festival. He didn't go back until he was invited with his own book in 1999.photo by lisa provence
Civil rights icon Congressman John Lewis was arrested 40 times in the '60s, and four times since he's been in Congress. The youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington and the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was clubbed by police on the Selma bridge and left with a concussion. As an original Freedom Rider in 1961, he was beaten in Rock Hill, South Carolina, by a group of white men "who left me lying in a pool of blood," he told the audience at the Paramount Theater March 23.
Decades later, one of his attackers came to Lewis' congressional office and apologized. "He cried, I cried," said Lewis. "That is the power of love."
Lewis, 73, was in Charlottesville for the Virginia Festival of the Book, and he appeared with John Carlos, the Olympic bronze medalist who gave the black power salute in Mexico City in 1968.
3 comments
I didn't know having a Quilty conscience and feelings of strong regrets for sooooooooo long can even soften the most evilest of people like Elwin Lewis. I wonder if the Evilest of Evilest Hilter had felt this way just before he died? The world will never know!
I agree D.
Well, I feel an apology shouldn't take decades, It should come from you at the time of those feelings.