Honoring the Lives and Legacies of Freedom Fighters

July 17, 2020 - We join our nation in grieving the death of two civil rights icons: Rep. John Lewis and Rev. C.T. Vivian.
We are deeply grateful for their embodied commitments to freedom, equality and justice for all human beings. To honor the lives and legacies of freedom fighters in our cloud of witnesses, let us pick up the mantle and answer the call to "good trouble" given to us by Rep. Lewis in 2019:  "When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to do something. Our children and their children will ask us, 'what did you do?' ... Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble. We have a mission and a mandate to be on the right side of history."
Let us heed these words of encouragement from John Lewis' final essay: "Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.”
John Lewis (1940--2020), a champion of the civil rights movement and one of its leading figures, died of pancreatic cancer on Friday, July 17, 2020. He was 80. "A son of sharecroppers and an apostle of nonviolence who was bloodied at Selma and across the Jim Crow South in the historic struggle for racial equality, carried a mantle of moral authority into Congress." [1]
In an interview on CBS Sunday Morning, in the midst of nationwide nonviolent protests over the murder of George Floyd, Representative Lewis asked, "How many more — how many more young, black men will be murdered? The madness must stop." He continued in his lifelong effort to lobby for change with, "It is my hope that we are on our way to greater change — to respect the dignity and the worth of every human being when it doesn’t matter their color or their background, or whether they are male or female, gay or straight. That it comes to a point where we are one people, we’re one family. We all live in the same house, not just the  American house, but the world house." [2]
Lewis was no stranger to protest. "He marched alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. and was repeatedly beaten and arrested during nonviolent protests for racial equality." [2]  He was only 23 when he took the stage at the March on Washington, the National President of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. "We must say, 'Wake up America! Wake up! For we cannot stop, and we will not stop ...."[3]  And John Lewis never stopped for the rest of his 80 years, becoming a leader of the Democratic Party in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he represented Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death.
We join Vice President Joe Biden in saying to John Lewis, "March on, dear friend." [4]
C.T. Vivian (1924--2020), Martin Luther King’s Field General, died at 95 after serving a lifetime as a champion of racial justice. As all Freedom Fighters, Vivian was a disciplined advocate of nonviolence starting with his involvement on the front lines in the 1960s movement for racial justice. [5]
"We were deeply saddened to learn of Civil Rights icon Reverend C.T. Vivian's passing. An advocate of nonviolence, his strength, courage and passion for change helped shape history. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called him the "greatest preacher he ever heard." Rest In Power Reverend." [6]
1.   From The New York Times: John Lewis, Towering Figure of Civil Rights Era, Dies at 80. Images of his beating at Selma shocked the nation and led to swift passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He was later called the conscience of the Congress.
2.  CBS Sunday Morning on June 4, 2020
3.  John Lewis' Pivotal "This Is It" Moment at the March on Washington | Oprah’s Master Class | OWN
4. Vice President Joe Biden's Tribute to John Lewis
5. From The New York Times: C.T. Vivian, Martin Luther King’s Field General, Dies at 95. A disciplined advocate of nonviolence, he was on the front lines in the 1960s movement for racial justice.
6. A Tribute to Reverend C.T. Vivian | Oprah Winfrey Network
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