John Lewis (politician)

John Lewis is an American politician. He was an important leader in the American Civil Rights Movement, organizing the March 7, 1965 Selma march.

Sourced

• "Next time we march we may have to keep going when we get to Montgomery. We may have to on to Washington."
  • Told to New York Times on March 7, 1965 by Lewis, chairman of the Student Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee and organizer of the Selma to Montgomery march after police stopped the demonstrators with violence.
  • As noted on On This Day, BBC. (url accessed on October 22, 2008)

• "I thought I was going to die a few times. On the Freedom Ride in the year 1961, when I was beaten at the Greyhound bus station in Montgomery, I thought I was going to die. On March 7th, 1965, when I was hit in the head with a night stick by a State Trooper at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, I thought I was going to die. I thought I saw death, but nothing can make me question the philosophy of nonviolence."
  • Academy of Achievement web site (url accessed on October 22, 2008)

• "I believe in nonviolence as a way of life, as a way of living."
  • Academy of Achievement web site (url accessed on October 22, 2008)

• "War does not end strife - it sows it. War does not end hatred - it feeds it. For those who argue war is a necessary evil, I say you are half right. War is evil. But it is not necessary. War cannot be a necessary evil, because non-violence is a necessary good. The two cannot co-exist."