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Moral Faith and the Legacy of John Lewis's Political Vision of “Good Trouble”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2021

Terrence L. Johnson
Terrence L. Johnson*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Religion and Politics, Georgetown University
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Abstract

The late congressman John Lewis spent most of his political life engaging Black Power's commitment to economic and political freedom through a political vocabulary that aligned with his deeply held beliefs in nonviolence, human rights activism, and moral faith. The tension between the Black radical left and establishment Black politics dates back to Lewis's clash with elite Black leaders over the content of his prepared address for the 1963 March on Washington. The address provides a glimpse into Lewis's complicated political legacy. The youngest speaker at the March, Lewis faced the daunting task of both representing the political philosophy of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and meeting the expectations of established civil rights leaders. Negotiating the political interests of the organizers of the March alongside the demands of SNCC foreshadowed the congressman's political vocation: a lifetime of civil rights advocacy through a politics of respectability and Black Power's political philosophy of freedom and economic transformation. Lewis's political legacy is complicated; and yet, it was fueled by an unabashed commitment to Black freedom struggles, human rights activism, and racial reconciliation.

Keywords

moral faithBlack radicalismcivil rights movementStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)March on Washington
Type
Essay Roundtable: John R. Lewis's Legacies in Law and Religion
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 37 - 45
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University

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References

1 In a Washington Post column, Hasan Kwame Jeffries called Clinton's remarks part “warm, folksy tribute.” Hasan Kwame Jeffries, “Stokley Carmichael Didn't Deserve Bill Clinton's Swipe during John Lewis's Funeral,” Washington Post, August 1, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/08/01/stokely-carmichael-didnt-deserve-bill-clintons-swipe-during-john-lewiss-funeral/?request-id=bb0d3485-014c-4ca2-a4d8-6e02ccb046cb&pml=1&pml=1.

2 Gilbert, Kenyatta R., The Journey and Promise of African American Preaching (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011), 3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Joshua Bote, “Former President Bill Clinton at John Lewis’ funeral: ‘He Was Here on a Mission,’” USA Today, July 30, 2020, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/30/bill-clinton-speaks-john-lewis-funeral-full-transcript/5544050002/.

4 Bote, “Former President Bill Clinton at John Lewis’ Funeral.” See also Jeffries, “Stokely Carmichael Didn't Deserve Bill Clinton's Swipe during John Lewis's Funeral.”

5 Cassandra Cavness, letter to the editor, New York Times, July 30, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/opinion/letters/john-lewis-civil-rights.html.

6 I discuss this tension in light of the 2008 presidential election below, and other contributors to this roundtable discuss other examples, including Lewis's support of same-sex marriage equality, the Mariel Cubans, and Russian Jews.

7 “Rep. Lewis Switches to Obama,” Los Angeles Times, February 28, 2008, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-feb-28-na-endorse28-story.html.

8 “Read the Full Transcript of Obama's Eulogy for John Lewis,” New York Times, July 30, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/us/obama-eulogy-john-lewis-full-transcript.html.

9 Josh Gottheimer, Introduction to Ripples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches, ed. Josh Gottheimer (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2003), xvii–xxxviii, at xv.

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13 A. Philip Randolph was a leading labor rights advocate and chief architect of the March on Washington. He founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, which is considered to be the first successful Black trade union. “Randolph, A. Phillip,” The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/randolph-philip. Bayard Rustin was a key advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr., and one of the leading political strategist of the civil rights movement. An African American, Quaker, and gay leader, Rustin is among the many unsung heroes of Black politics largely because of his sexuality. “Rustin, Bayard,” The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/rustin-bayard.

14 Lewis and D'Orso, Walking with the Wind, 203.

15 Garrow, David J., Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (New York: Quill, 1999), 282Google Scholar.

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17 James Forman was a leading strategist in SNCC. As its executive secretary, Forman played a decisive role in collecting and documenting the organization's history and shaping SNCC's political agenda.

18 Pauley, Garth E., “John Lewis's ‘Serious Revolution’: Rhetoric, Resistance, and Revision at the March on Washington,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 84, no. 3 (1998): 320–40, at 325CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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22 Lewis, “Speech at the March on Washington.”

23 Jones, William P., “The Forgotten Radical History of the March on Washington,” Dissent 60, no. 2 (2013): 74–79, at 77CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24 Jones, “The Forgotten Radical History of the March on Washington,” 75.

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28 Carson, In Struggle, 136, quoting John Lewis, “Statement to SNCC Staff Meeting,” February 1965, available at Civil Rights Movement Archive, https://www.crmvet.org/docs/650200_sncc_africa.pdf.

29 Lewis, “Speech at the March on Washington.”

30 Lewis, “Speech at the March on Washington.”

31 Bart Barnes, “Obituary for James O. Eastland,” Washington Post, February 20, 1986, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1986/02/20/obituary/8f8ccad3-c94c-42e5-aace-fe3017dcdb34/.

32 The New York Times called Jacob Javits, a US senator from New York, a “liberal Republican.” He was a supporter of civil rights legislation while on Capitol Hill during the civil rights movement. See James F. Clarity, “Jacob Javits Dies in Florida at 81: 4-Term Senator from New York,” New York Times, March 8, 1986, https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/08/obituaries/jacob-javits-dies-in-florida-at-81-4-term-senator-from-new-york.html.

33 Bart Barnes, “Barry Goldwater, GOP Hero, Dies,” Washington Post, May 30, 1998, https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/may98/goldwater30.htm.

34 Pauley, “John Lewis's ‘Serious Revolution,’” 332.

35 Carson, In Struggle, 200.

36 See Johnson, Terrence L., We Testify with Our Lives: How Religion Transformed Radical Thought from Black Power to Black Lives Matter (New York: Columbia University Press, 2021)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 John Lewis, “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation,” New York Times, July 30, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/opinion/john-lewis-civil-rights-america.html.

38 Lewis, “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation.”

39 Lewis, “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation.”

40 Lewis, “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation.”

41 Lewis, “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation.”