John Lewis -- Civil Rights Movement

It is easy to overestimate how much you know about an historical event.  I consider myself fairly widely read on the Civil Rights movement, but I learned many new things as I read John R. Lewis' autobiographical account of his life and participation in the civil rights movement.  Lewis was present at the sit-ins, a founding member and later president of SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), inspired by Martin Luther King and later board member of SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), involved in Freedom Summer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, devastated by the assassinations of Martin Luther King and
Robert Kennedy in 1968 to name a few important events.

John Lewis not only give us detailed first-hand accounts (the facts), but he also gives us his interpretation of the context and significance of these events.

In the prologue Lewis states what inspired him to sacrificial living; it was an ideal larger than deliverance from race, class or gender oppression:

"That path involves nothing less than the pursuit of the most precious and pure concept I have ever known, an ideal I discovered as a young man and that has guided me like a beacon ever since, a concept called the Beloved Community. . . .it ushered me into the heart of the most meaningful and monumental movement of this American century, and. . . . it might steer us all where we deserve to go in the next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jim Lawson . . . .  and Dr. King . . . . taught [us] to believe . . . . the Beloved Community was nothing less than the Christian concept of the kingdom of God on earth."

John Lewis had a clear and compelling understanding of the kingdom of God, something Marcus Borg says is missing in most of the American church.

John Lewis, as he was growing up in rural Alabama, was highly churched; church was a central component in the Afro American community.  But church, as good and necessary as it may be, was not enough for Lewis.  He hungered for something more, something that could change the economic and social oppression around him, something that could transcend human divisions.  After hearing Martin Luther King, and after being exposed to the nonviolent but aggressive means of social change taught by Jim Lawson, Lewis found the ideal he was looking for---a clear and compelling vision of the kingdom of God, here on earth.

John Lewis provides answers to some gnawing questions many people have regarding the civil rights movement.  Why did SNCC so quickly move fro the lofty goal of loving nonviolent means to achieve justice to Black Power?  Why was SNCC at the cutting edge of social change and a major force in breaking the back of segregation in Mississippi but in a few years it faded out of existence?  Why did the civil rights movement, which was so powerful for a period of years, soon decline into insignificance?

Four assassinations play crucial roles in answering these questions; the assassinations generated a cumulative loss of faith in American society's willingness to respond justly and lovingly to the cries of the oppressed:

1. The 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  Though his racial justice recored was checkered and though he often put politics ahead of justice, at times, Kennedy did what was right and provided a glimmer of hope.  In a USA Weekend poll, [Dec. 24, 1999], of the top new stories of the 20th century, Afro American voters ranked the JFK assassination as the number one story and Martin Luther King's assassination as number two; this ranking indicates the enormous loss they felt when JFK died.
2. President Lyndon Johnson's ruthless manipulation of the political process to deny the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party their seats at the Democratic National Convention in 1964.  The MFDP had played by the rules of the system, followed the political procedures to the letter of the law and still they were denied justice.  Bob Moses, a giant in the civil rights movement who lived by high principles and pursued an interracial democracy, was crushed; he vowed never again to speak to a white man, changed his name and moved to Africa.  President Johnson killed the MFDP and assassinated hope for many civil rights workers.
3. The assassination of Martin Luther King in April 1968.  King was the visible leader of the civil rights movement, stood for love, justice and an interracial democracy; he was gone.  For millions hope disappeared and it was replaced by frustration and anger.  Therefore, riots exploded across the nation.
4. The assassination of Robert Kennedy as he was on the verge of becoming the Democratic nominee for President.  According to John L. Lewis, there had been a profound change in Robert Kennedy; he was now an authentic champion of racial and economic justice.  But in June, 1968, Robert Kennedy died.

Fortunately, some highly important civil rights laws had been passed during the 1960s which endured with lasting positive effects, even in the midst of the loss of hope and faith, as these visible leaders were assassinated.  And there were many grassroots leaders such as Ella Baker and John Lewis who continued the battle.

What about the role of the church?  At time, the Christian church, primarily segments of the Afro American church, came through with flying colors.  Without the support of the Afro church, the civil rights movements would never have succeeded to the degree that it did.  With an occasional exception, by and large, the Euro church failed.  For the most part, the Euro church remained neutral or actively supported the racist status quo.  It feared change rather than leading change.  Even liberals often turned out to be fair weathered friends.

Why did the Christian church so often fail to meet the test?  One answer could be a weak or incomplete theology.  John Lewis, his family, his community were church oriented.  America as a whole when compared to Europe, is highly churches.  Both Afro and Euro communities in the South were highly churched.  But, Lewis saw massive poverty and vicious ethnocentrism in the midst of a highly churched South.

What was missing?  John Lewis discovered that it was the kingdom of God---the Beloved Community.  The Christian church is supposed to incarnate the kingdom of God in the larger society.  In so doing ethnocentrism, sexism and oppression are to be exposed and replaced by reconciliation, justice and shalom.  Too often the ministry of the church takes place primarily within the four walls of the church and only in a limited fashion impacts the outside society.

Lewis was profoundly and permanently impacted by King's vision of the kingdom of God here on earth.  This vision sustained him during times of serious danger, deep disappointment and exhaustion.  It sustained him when close friends turned on him and followed different ideologies.  But those who both understood and were committed to the spiritual/social dimensions of the kingdom of God were few and far between so the glorious years of the civil rights movement soon faded.

Most readers are quite familiar with some of the successes of the civil rights movement: nonviolent, loving, aggressive demonstrations in the pursuit of human rights and social justice; President Johnson's speech on behalf of civil rights legislation; the passage of federal civil rights laws; the March on Washington and King's "I Have A Dream" speech; Freedom Summer in Mississippi, etc.  John Lewis gives us the inside story of these successes, but he also tells of failures.  The 1960s reveal both the best of America and the worst of America.  For example, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party story represents both.

In the 1960s, the Democratic Party controlled the South and it was high segregated.  So one of the aims of Freedom Summer was to get access to the political process.  This required the creation of a separate Democratic Party---The MFDP.  With the help of lawyers, all the rules were meticulously followed.  An enormous effort was put forth by hundreds of people.  As the MFDP delegation arrived in Atlantic City for the national convention, everyone was optimistic:

     How could we not prevail?  The law was on our side.  Justice was on our side.  The entire nation

     was with us.  I couldn't see how these convention seats could be kept from us. (p. 278)

Fannie Lou Hamer testified before the Credential Committee.  She detailed her own experiences:

     The savage beatings she endured in pursuit of the vote, the cruel humiliations, the violent 

     violations of her basic rights as a human being and as an American citizen. (p. 279)

The entire nation was watching this riveting testimony; victory was at hand.  But, President Johnson, the super-political, was also watching.  He saw the solid Democratic South slipping away and his election doomed if the MFDP was seated.  The President began working behind the scenes and developed a plan to deny the MFDP full representation; he offered a token two seats.  he manipulated the political process and won.

  The defeat of the MFDP left its delegates stunned.  John Lewis, who was there, comments:

     

      As far as I am concerned, this was the turning point of the civil rights movement.  I am absolutely

      convinced of that.  Until then, despite eery setback . . . . the belief still prevailed that the  

      [democratic] system would work . . . . Now, for the first time, we had made our way to the very   

      center of the system.  We had played by the rules . . . . had arrived at the doorstop and found the 

      door slammed in our face. 9pg. 282)

  There was an enormous "loss of faith [which] would . . . . extend out of the 1960s, into the '70s and 

  80s, and on up to today."

      It was a major letdown for hundreds and thousands of civil rights workers, both black and white,      

      young and old alike who had given everything they had to prove that you could work through the  

      system.  They felt cheated.  They felt robbed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  It turned many of them into 

      radicals and revolutionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  People began turning on each other.   

     The movement started turning on itself. (p. 283)

  The impact of this rejection was most profoundly felt by Bob Moses, the "Moses" of the civil rights 

  movement in Mississippi:

     

     But people like Bob Moses, people who had insisted up until then that we must incorporate white  

     into the movement, that an interracial democracy must be pursued interracially now began  

     abandoning that belief.  Atlantic City was the last straw for Moses.  This is what he had sweated 

     and suffered for, what he watched so many suffer and die for.  He had created this political party.  

     He had planed the Summer Project.  More than any other individual, he had personally steered this 

     journey.  And at the end he was shunned, slapped in the face, told in so many words that he was a 

     fool.  It was a cruel lesson for Bob Moses, one from which he never recovered.  He left Atlantic 

     City vowing never to speak to a white man again.  Within a year, he would change his name and  

     move to Africa. (p. 283)

  John Lewis said he was also "devastated".  But he refused to let himself become bitter.  "I've always   

  refuse to do that." Anger, yes, but bitterness, no.

  SNCC was divided and torn apart; a Black Power faction took over so SNCC became a separatist 

  movement.

  Ironically, at the same time the apostle of black nationalism and separatism, Malcolm X, was moving in the opposite direction.  John Lewis took a trip to Africa and accidentally met Malcolm X in Kenya.  Malcolm X talked at length about his trip to Egypt, Mecca and Africa and the profound impact of that trip upon his thinking.  Lewis comments:

     The man who sat with us in that hotel room was enthusiastic and excited . . . . He seemed very 

     hopeful.  His overwhelming reception in Africa by blacks, whites, Asians and Arabs, alike, had  

     pushed him toward believing that people could come together.

     . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

     I recall very well that he said he had been struck by how the majority of black people in Cairo    

     were light-skinned . . . . The focus among blacks in America on the shading of skin, on race, was 

     misdirected, he said.  He talked about the need to shift our focus, both among one another and 

     between us and the white community from race to class. (p. 287)

Back in the US, in connection with the Selma violence, President Johnson made the "strongest speech any American president has ever made on civil rights."  President Johnson had moved from crass political manipulation to deny equal rights to the MFDP to becoming a vigorous supporter of the 1965 Voting rights Act and the architect of the War on Poverty.   Unfortunately, the War on Poverty turned out to be only a skirmish because the war in Vietnam took precedence, a war that both King and Lewis opposed.

Fast forward to 1968.  In April, Martin Luther Kings was assassinated.  King had introduced Lewis to the kingdom of God as the answer to social problems.  Even through times of disagreement, Lewis never deserted King.  Lewis served on the SCLC board of directors and was still on the board at the time of King's death.  King's untimely death was another terrific blow to those who had faith that America was becoming more just.

AT this same time, Robert Kennedy was running for the presidency.  As attorney general under JFK, Robert had been a reluctant supporter of civil rights.  But over time, he had had a conversation to economic and social justice.  Lewis believed that this was genuine conversation [I had always been skeptical until I read Lewis].  So Lewis joined Robert Kennedy's political team.

John Lewis was with Robert Kennedy when Martin Luther Kings was shot.  Kennedy spoke extemporaneously with deep conviction.  He urged the nation to put aside distrust, bitterness and hatred and to rededicate ourselves to living out King's ideals of compassion, love and justice.  The speech is printed in Lewis' book.

In June, as he was on the verge of winning her Democratic nomination, Robert Kennedy was assassinated.  Lewis describes his reaction:

     I sleepwalked through the next few weeks, wondering if I could ever put my belief and faith and 

     trust in someone again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . we lost something with the death of those two 

     leaders that year . . . . that as a nation we will never recover. (p. 397)

But in August Lewis began to move forward again, inspired in part by a statement made by
Robert Kennedy:

     Some men [people] see things as they are and say, Why?"
     I dream things that never were and say, "Why not?" (p. 401]

Toward the end of the book, Lewis described the New South, the "remarkable progress" that had been made due to the civil rights movement.

Lewis had personal reservations about the election of Jimmy Carter, but he was overjoyed "that the hands that picked cotton had now picked a president."

In 1986, Lewis was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.  He has been reelected five times.  So these last 12 years Lewis has been attempting to live out his high principles in the rough and tumble politics of Washington.  He is still devoted to "the principles of nonviolence, social action and a truly interracial democracy."  He keeps in touch with poor communities.

     I go home to Atlanta almost every weekend . . . . I see the homeless, the drugs and
     the despondency.  It is real, it is pervasive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
     The path that remains to lead us to the Beloved Community is no longer racial
      alone . . . . [There are now] divisions and canyons created by class. (p. 460)

John Lewis' own life provides a glimmer of hope in the midst of continuing serious problems.  John was born in extreme poverty in a highly segregated community.  New he is an influential, well-educated, politician/statesperson in Washington.  John Lewis has never given up his ideals; he has continued the struggle against all odds.  Now thousands of Christians need to join in and complete the task.  Much remains to be done; the task will take enormous effort and deep commitment.  We will need a clear and compelling vision of the kingdom of God to motivate and sustain us.



More excerpts from Walking With the Wind:

"The Community Organization Project was aimed at establishing cooperative, credit unions and community development groups in rural and urban neighborhoods in towns and cities throughout the Deep South.  This was grassroots work, very much in keeping with the War on Poverty.  My partner was a young, energetic white man from North Caroline named Al Ulmer, a former SRC staffer who now worked for the agency as a consultant.  He had not been involved in the civil rights movement, but he had spent time in the Peace Corps, and he was a big believer in community organizing from the bottom up, a big believer in the concept of self-help." (p.380)

"We traveled all over the South, Al and I, into little towns and farming areas, many of the same places I'd spent time in during the first half of the decade.  Selma, Greenwood, Americus--they were the same, but they were different now, too.  No marching, no battalions of troopers, no press.  The press had moved north now, following the movement and the action into the cities.  The "revolution," riots, Black Panthers, campus unrest, Vietnam--these were the big stories now.  The civil rights movement was old news.  There were no more stories down south, at least not the kinds of stories that make front-page headlines." (pgs. 380-381)

"Little towns like McComb and Rujeville and Andalusia had problems now that wouldn't be helped by marching or singing.  The people living there could finally vote, but other needs--food and shelter and jobs--were wanting.  My job was about helping these people join together, helping them help one another to fill those needs.  It was about showing people how to pool what money they had to forma bank of their own, a credit union.  Or how to band together to buy groceries, or feed, or seed, in bulk amounts at low prices--how to form cooperatives." (p. 381)

     "Sweet potato cooperatives."
     "Okra cooperatives."

     "Hog cooperatives." (p. 381)

"We even helped organize quilting cooperative, where farmers' wives made quilts and sold them all over the country, then used the money to buy a refrigerator for one family, or a stove for another, or a washing machine." (p. 381)

"This was hands-on-work, and I loved it.  I felt at home again, literally.  Once again, I was often sleeping in the homes of families who would invite me to spend the night--me and Al and a staff member named Charles Prejean, who accompanied us unmanly of our trips.  More than once the three of us would bunk down in a back room of a small shotgun home, sometimes with two of us sharing the same bed.  Or we'd stay in an empty dormitory room at a college like Tuskegee or Jackson State.  Anyplace to lay our head, and anyplace felt good." (p. 381)

"I finished my schoolwork during this time, earning my degree in philosophy from Fisk by writing a paper on the impact of the civil rights movement on organized religion in America.  My central thesis was that the movement essentially amounted to a religious phenomenon.  It was church-based, church-sanctioned; most of its members and it activities flowed through and out of the black church, in small towns and rural communities as well as urban areas." (p. 381)

"That was what the church had come to mean to me.  I felt the spirit, the hand of the Lord, the power of the Bible--all of those things--but only when they flowed through the church and out into the streets.  As long as God and His teachings were kept inside the walls of a sanctuary, as they were when I was young, the church meant next to nothing to me." (pigs. 381-382)


A final word from SNCC and John R. Lewis to the people:

     You don't have to wait until Roy Wilkins comes to town.  You don't have to wait until Martin
     Luther King comes to McComb.  You can do it yourself . . . . There is no leader as powerful as
     you, if you pull together. (p. 189)