John Lewis Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom
John Lewis Awarded Presidential Medal of FreedomThe Georgia lawmaker and civil rights hero gets the nation's highest civilian honor.
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Georgia Rep. John Lewis became one of 15 people this year to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom award yesterday, the nation's highest civilian honor*. Lewis, a hero of the civil rights movement, said he was moved to tears when Obama personally informed him of his award.
"If somebody told me one day I would be standing in the White House, and an African American president presenting me the Medal of Freedom, I would have said, 'Are you crazy'? Are you out of your mind?" Lewis told reporters, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
After initially endorsing Hilary Clinton in 2007, he then threw his support behind then-Senator Obama. Later, Lewis remarked that choosing to support Obama was tougher than participating in his most famous civil rights battle, the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965. Although Lewis had a close friendship with Bill and Hilary Clinton, he said he had to be on "the right side of history."
Lewis' political legacy has indeed withstood the test of time. Lewis was elected to Congress in 1986, which makes him the longest-serving Georgian currently in the House. In the 1960's he was a chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and protested against segregated lunch counters. He also launched Freedom Rides throughout the South and endured violent beatings by white mobs. In 1963, Lewis stood alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Lincoln Memorial, making him the last surviving keynote speaker from that unforgettable day.
More http://www.colorlines.com/articles/john-lewis-awarded-presidential-medal-freedom
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................and so will she~
Thanks leftofcool
That beautiful little girl! What a moment. 
Last edited Sat Feb 13, 2016, 08:14 AM - Edit history (1)
He didn't get beaten.
He didn't stand where he lived.
He wasn't two people over from MLK.
I don't care about photo gate - I think it's silly that people are twisted over it. We know Sanders did the north east liberal thing to do and marched on Washington. Hell! My mom and her parents were there and they were white folks from California.
At no time however would she (a teenager at the time) says she was this huge part of the movement. The people getting beaten to a pulp, attacked by dogs, lynched, and fire hosed were the big part.
Where the derision comes from is this idea (not you but the way some people write) that Sanders was the master mind. He was in secret meetings. He built the lunch counters. A march does not a Leader Make. Lewis was a little pup who had not one fuck to give about his life.
What was it worth in the USA at that time anyways?
Nothing. He was my dad's contemporary and grew up in the same cesspool of everything that was wrong with America in his face everyday. If folks want to tout Sanders sympathy towards the black civil rights movement - that's fine.
But let it stand alone.
It has nothing to do with John Lewis and he shouldn't be placed on the same pillar as Lewis.
It didn't happen like that.
It did not.
And I want people to stop trying to delude themselves that it's Sanders who was at the signing for his efforts.
He was not there. 
Building to a crescendo.
Standing to applaud !!!!!
Nailed it. I so love you!
HOSTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now leave the group. Stop electioneering on a thread honoring John Lewis.
I'm a group host. You can come back in August after the convention. Stop clogging up the threads with this.
If I posted a SWB incident - you'd slap that in the thread!
Now just stop. Go away - come back in August.
FYI
