The late Congressman John Lewis encouraged Americans to cause “good trouble,” and former President Barack Obama did just that in praise for the late civil rights pioneer on Thursday.
Obama won multiple standing ovations during a speech riddled with political comments aimed at the Trump administration’s crackdown on Black Lives Matter protesters and blocked efforts to address voter crackdown.
In recounting Lewis’s relentless activism, Obama said the country “has not yet reached that blessed destination where we are judged on the content of our character.”
“Bull Connor may be gone, but today we are witnessing with our own eyes of police officers kneeling on the neck of black Americans,” he said. “George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness how our federal government sends officers to use tear gas and batons against peaceful protesters.”
Obama said Lewis “shed blood” for the Voting Rights Act, which was now under threat. He called for the filibusters (“another Jim Crow relic”) to be removed so that the voting rights legislation can be passed. He called for Election Day to be a national holiday, for former prisoners to be given voting rights, and for partial gerrymandering to be removed.
“Even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing everything they can to discourage people from voting by closing polling places and attacking minorities and students with restrictive identification laws, and attacking our voting rights. with surgical precision, even undermining the postal service in the run-up to an election that will depend on mail ballots so people don’t get sick, ”he said.
Speaking directly to elected representatives at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Obama continued: “Do you want to honor John? Let’s honor John by revitalizing the law he was willing to die for. “
Perhaps anticipating the criticisms that he made the political eulogy, Obama said: “I know this is a celebration of John’s life, there are some who might say that we should not think about such things, but … John Lewis devoted his time on this earth. ” fighting against attacks on democracy … that we are seeing circulate right now. “
In response to Obama’s call for an end to the filibuster, Andrew Bates, rapid response director for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, told The Daily Beast: “Republicans in Congress should turn Rep. Lewis into action and approve the John Lewis voting rights Act today by voice vote. Without filibuster, without delay.
Lewis died on July 17, at age 80, of cancer. Declared a living saint by Hour In the magazine, he spent his life campaigning for racial equality and voting rights after being savagely beaten in a civil rights protest while crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on a march to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.
All of the living presidents except Donald Trump played a role in Thursday’s memorial, one of several events honoring the life of Lewis. George W. Bush and Bill Clinton gave a speech while Jimmy Carter sent a letter that was read aloud.
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