In honor of John Lewis' birthday today, revisit JamilSmith's interview with the civil rights icon
The congressman speaks in such a distinctive and weighty cadence that it’s almost startling to hear him say something as mundane as “Good afternoon” when he greets me with a firm handshake at his office door. The fight in his voice is never far from the surface. I ask Lewis if he still considers himself a radical. “I believe that I’m a radical for fairness,” he tells me. “A radical for justice. A radical for the truth.
Yeah, I was very hopeful when we were marching across that bridge. I was very, very hopeful when we were sitting in or speaking at the March on Washington. But we cannot lose hope. Well, this Congress — which is so diverse, [has] so many young people, so many women — should make a major down payment on setting the American house in order, on putting America on the right side and not discriminating against people because of their history, their background, the color of their skin or what part of the world [they come from]. We have a great, unbelievable debate about building a wall.
You’ve often talked about making “good trouble.” Who do you see making good trouble now, and how are you still getting into that yourself? But the action of Rosa Parks and the leadership of Dr. King inspired me to get in “good trouble.” And I’ve been getting in “good trouble” ever since.If it hadn’t been for the press, the civil-rights movement, the whole struggle would have been like a bird without wings. I believe that. For the press, it was very dangerous, especially in the American South, to be a reporter, to be there with a pen and a pad, with a camera.
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