Higgins Reflects on the late Congressman and Civil Rights Icon as a Man of Courage, Goodness & Grace
A Few Words of Tribute from Buffalo, New York area Congressman Brian Higgins
Posted July 30th, 2020 on Niagara At Large
As the late Honorable John Robert Lewis, who served in the House of Representatives for 33 years, made a final departure from Washington, D.C. on July 29, 2020, his colleagues on the House Ways and Means Committee paid tribute to the civil rights legend.
John Lewis, during a return to the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma Alabama, where in 1965 he was almost beaten to death by police during a march for voting rights.
On the House floor Congressman Brian Higgins remarked on John’s childhood visits to the City of Buffalo and hailed his presence of mind and courage to act on inspiration.
A young Lewis, worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. to organize the 1963 March on Washington. In 1965, John led a civil rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, in a peaceful protest for Black voting rights. John and other protestors were met by state troopers with tear gas and billy clubs. John was bloodied and his skull was broken. He publicly admonished President Lyndon Johnson, calling for change, and later that year the Civil Rights Act was signed into law.
In 2011, John Lewis receiving one of his country’s highest honors, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from then-U.S. President Barack Obama
In 2013, Higgins had the opportunity to join Congressman Lewis on a visit to the Edmund Pettus Bridge and other civil rights historic sites, where Lewis shared stories of struggle, in hopes of inspiring others to find the courage to stand up for what is right.
In a final letter to the public published in The New York Times<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/opinion/john-lewis-civil-rights-america.html> following his death, John Lewis writes in part:
The late U.S. Congressman and Civil Rights Icon John Lewis
“Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble…
“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.”
Congressman Lewis laid in state in the United States Capitol for the public to pay their respect from July 27 through July 29. A funeral for the Congressman was held on July 30.
To watch Buffalo area Congressman Brian Higgins make a statement about the life of John Lewis on the floor of U.S. Congress, click on the screen below –
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