John Lewis
John Lewis
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth21 February 1940
CountryUnited States of America
confined four great message morning sermon sunday walls
It was not enough to come and listen to a great sermon or message every Sunday morning and be confined to those four walls and those four corners. You had to get out and do something.
came greater united
The United States came out of the 1990s, if anything, in an even greater position of hegemony and preeminence than it was at the beginning of the 1990s.
choosing doctrine far great itself leads obviously people power taken wonder
If there is one great power, and the great power has taken upon itself the right to preempt and is choosing for itself when and in what circumstances it's going to do that, obviously it leads people in the rest of the world to wonder how far this doctrine extends.
needed
It's something we've needed for a long time.
country gone saw signs torn ways
I would say the country is a different country. It is a better country. The signs I saw when I was growing up are gone and they will not return. In many ways the walls of segregation have been torn down.
documented efforts forces states throughout voter
The documented incidences of voter fraud are very rare, yet throughout the country, forces have mobilized in over 30 states to stop it. These efforts are very partisan.
brothers check cousins inspired librarian public sisters trying whites
I was so inspired by Dr. King that in 1956, with some of my brothers and sisters and first cousins - I was only 16 years old - we went down to the public library trying to check out some books, and we were told by the librarian that the library was for whites only and not for colors. It was a public library.
believe hard
If you're not hopeful and optimistic, then you just give up. You have to take the long hard look and just believe that if you're consistent, you will succeed.
became bringing change civil college heard involved king luther martin means met politics rights saw tenth three time
When I was 15 years old and in the tenth grade, I heard of Martin Luther King, Jr. Three years later, when I was 18, I met Dr. King and we became friends. Two years after that I became very involved in the civil rights movement. I was in college at that time. As I got more and more involved, I saw politics as a means of bringing about change.
beyond black create elected family gone officials passing white
Now we have black and white elected officials working together. Today, we have gone beyond just passing laws. Now we have to create a sense that we are one community, one family. Really, we are the American family.
giving messed people
If it wasn't for the people giving us stuff, we wouldn't be here today. If it wasn't for them, we'd have been real messed up.
federation grown neck
I don't think the federation has a head; its neck has just grown up and haired over.
hatred political sowing
Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.
mother father mother-and-father
My mother and father and many of my relatives had been sharecroppers.