The quote “As we build bridges and even become bridges, we will be doing a service to the world” written by John A. Powell, law professor at UC Berkeley,  perfectly describes the life of John Lewis.

 

Congressman Lewis, born in rural Alabama, devoted his life to being a bridge for racial justice and equality. He was a skilled organizer and skilled orator who built bridges with both skills. He is known for the phrase “get in good trouble, necessary trouble”.

 

John Lewis was a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, one of the 1963 March on Washington organizers with Dr. Martin Luther King and one of its youngest speakers (age 23). He was a planner, with Rev. Hosea Williams, of the Selma to Montgomery March across the Edmund Pettis Bridge. The marchers were viciously attacked by state troopers leaving John Lewis with a broken skull. The March became known as Bloody Sunday.  His 2017 memoir is titled “Across that Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America”.

 

John Lewis continued to be a bridge builder and was elected to serve in the House of Representatives for Georgia’s 5th Congressional District from 1987 until he died in 2020.

 

Congressman Lewis received many honors and awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the NAACP Spingarn Medal and the sole John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for Lifetime Achievement.

 

Building bridges and becoming bridges start in the simplest ways: a kind word, an open conversation, a gracious deed and a willingness to explore differences. It is both a mindset and a learned behavior.