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[Page H3095]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PAYING TRIBUTE TO THE HONORABLE JOHN R. LEWIS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Green) for 5 minutes.
Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, it is my preeminent privilege to
rise today to pay tribute to a great and noble American, a dear friend,
a Member of this House until his transition. Mr. Speaker, of course I
speak of none other than the Honorable John Lewis.
I want to recognize and say words about him today, because he took to
heart the words of Gandhi that we should be the change that we seek. He
was the sermon that he preached. He did what he said he would do and
inspired others to do likewise.
It is said that a great person will always rise to the occasion, but
it is also said that the greater person makes the occasion.
Well, when it came to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, not only did he rise
to the occasion by marching across that bridge, he made the occasion by
helping to organize the march that left Brown Chapel and went to that
bridge. Knowing that they were facing the constabulary with clubs, they
marched on. Knowing that they were marching into brutality, they
marched on.
He was a person who understood that the cause of justice will
sometimes require some harm to be suffered, yet he marched on. And for
this reason, the world had an opportunity to see the horrors of
invidious discrimination, and in so seeing, a President, Lyndon
Johnson, was put in a position such that he could pass the Voting
Rights Act. And after the passage of that act, many of us who are in
Congress today are here because he marched across that bridge.
So I would say to you, Mr. Speaker, because of his courage, because
he walked the talk, because he was there for us at the Edmund Pettus
Bridge, and because the Voting Rights Act was passed as a result
thereof, it seems to me that it would be proper, appropriate, and
befitting of this body and all of Congress to now pass the reformation
of the Voting Rights Act so that we can show the world that voting is
still important to all people in this country.
The Honorable John Lewis was there on Bloody Sunday. Why not have the
irony of history allow him to be the spark that will ignite the passage
of this reformation of the Voting Rights Act in the Congress of the
United States of America.
And finally this: I had conversations with him, some of them in jail.
He got me in good trouble. We went to jail in 2006 protesting at the
Sudanese Embassy. We went to jail in 2013 protesting out in the streets
of Washington, D.C., for immigration reform. Yes, it was good trouble,
and I am proud to say I was there in good trouble.
But one of the things we discussed was Jimmie Lee Jackson. We ought
not forget Jimmie Lee Jackson. Jimmie Lee Jackson was the person who
had just lost his life prior to marching across the Edmund Pettus
Bridge. In fact, there are many who would contend that he was the spark
that ignited much of that movement.
So let us move forward together recognizing the Honorable John
Lewis. But let us not forget C.T. Vivian; let us not forget Hosea
Williams; let us not forget the many nameless, faceless persons who
were there with him on Bloody Sunday.
Let us do this: Let us pass the Voting Rights Act, the reformation
thereof, in his honor.
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