Former President Barack Obama delivered an emotional compliment at the funeral of Representative John Lewis, a civil rights icon, on Thursday afternoon, calling him a “mentor” to many and praising him for his “courage.”
The 44th president, who followed speeches by former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, said he was delivering the comments due to a “huge debt” to Lewis.
“I came here today because I like that many Americans owe a great debt to John Lewis and his energetic vision of freedom,” said the former commander-in-chief at the beginning of his eulogy.
“Now this country is a constant work in progress. We were born with instructions to form a more perfect union, and explicitly in those words is the idea that we are imperfect, “he continued,” which gives each new generation the purpose of taking on the unfinished work of the last and taking beyond what anyone would have thought possible. “
Obama, Obama said, was “a mentor to young people, including me at the time, until his last day on this earth, not only did he take that responsibility, but he made it his life’s job.”
The 44th President then noted Lewis’s bravery in starting to fight for racial justice in his teens, specifically referring to Lewis and Bernard Lafayette, 19, who were boarding a segregated bus after the Supreme Court ruled that such facilities were unconstitutional.
Imagine the courage of two people Malia’s age, younger than my oldest daughter, to challenge an entire infrastructure of oppression. John was only 20 years old, ”he said. The former president’s oldest daughter is currently 22 years old.
“But he pushed the 20s to the center of the table, betting everything, everything, that his example could challenge centuries of convention and generations of brutal violence,” Obama continued.
Commenting on the long road of progress and evolution of the country throughout history, the former president described Lewis as the Founding Father of America who will one day offer equality to all.
“The United States was built by John Lewises. He, as much as anyone in our history, brought this country a little closer to our highest ideals, and someday when we end that long journey to freedom, when we form a more perfect union, whether in years or decades or even if it takes another two centuries, John Lewis will be the founding father of that fuller, fairer, and better America, “Obama said to applaud the crowd.
Obama said Lewis promised “as long as I breathe in your body, I would do everything possible to preserve this democracy, and as long as we breathe in our body, we have to continue its cause.”
“If we want our children to grow up in a democracy, not just with elections, but with a true democracy, a representative democracy … then we will have to be more like John.”
The former president continued that Americans did not have to do everything the civil rights legend had done in their lives, since Lewis had already done those things “for us.”
“But, we have to do something,” he told the audience again.
Instead, he argued, Americans had to translate their passion for progress and social change into laws by voting and protecting voting rights.
“The Voting Rights Law is one of the main achievements of our democracy. That’s why John crossed that bridge, that’s why he shed his blood. And, by the way, it was the result of Democratic and Republican efforts. President Bush … and his father signed his renewal when they were in office, “Obama said.
Obama later praised President Clinton for passing legislation that makes it easier for Americans to vote, since the Voting Rights Act had already been signed by his predecessor, President George HW Bush.
“If the politicians want to honor John … there is a better way than a statement calling him a hero. Do you want to honor John? Let’s honor it by revitalizing the Voting Rights Act that I was willing to die for, ”he said.
The comment led to a great ovation from across the church.
Obama said he believed that changing the name of the act to Lewis would be “a good tribute”, but not far enough.
He then called for legislation to be expanded, specifically restoring criminals’ voting rights, making Election Day a federal holiday, increasing the number of polling places, and granting seats in Congress to Washington DC and Puerto Rico.
“If all of this requires eliminating the filibuster, another Jim Crow relic, to secure the God-given rights to every American, then that’s what we should do,” he said.
The filibuster refers to a Senate procedural rule that requires legislators to obtain 60 votes to allow for the passage of most laws.
The Georgia congressman died earlier this month of stage 4 pancreatic cancer at the age of 80. He had been diagnosed in December last year.
First elected in 1986 and praised as “the conscience of Congress,” Lewis, a staunch Democrat, ordered respect for both sides of the aisle.
He built his reputation in the 1960s, especially during the 1965 civil rights march in Selma, Alabama, during which he suffered a skull fracture at the end of a police club.
“There is still work to be done,” he urged during a 50th anniversary event on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 2015. The bridge is where the march took place, now known as “Bloody Sunday.”
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