The Enduring Legacy of an Authentic American ‘Giant’
Activism fueled by religion guided Lewis’ life. In later years he worried aloud that some people failed to understand civil rights activism as an extension of faith for many participants in the movement, rooted in stories about Jesus and the words of Gandhi, who was born Hindu and embraced many teachings.
“In my estimation, the civil rights movement was a religious phenomenon. When we’d go out to sit in or go out to march, I felt, and I really believe, there was a force in front of us and a force behind us, ’cause sometimes you didn’t know what to do. You didn’t know what to say, you didn’t know how you were going to make it through the day or through the night. But somehow and some way, you believed — you had faith — that it all was going to be all right,” Lewis told PBS in 2004.
He was a human being who was willing to suffer and to die for his understanding of the Gospel, and how that Gospel found expression in the United States of America of the 20th and 21st centuries. – Jon Meacham (American Historian)
(excerpt 1) “I truly believe that, in keeping with the teachings of Gandhi, of Martin Luther King, of Jesus, that we cannot give up on the way of non-violence, the way of peace, the way of love. If we are going to create the beloved community, if we are going to redeem the country, redeem the world, we have to do it by respecting the rights of all human beings.”
(excerpt 2)
“To the rioters here in Atlanta and across the country: I see you, and I hear you. I know your pain, your rage, your sense of despair and hopelessness. Justice has, indeed, been denied for far too long. Rioting, looting, and burning is not the way. Organize. Demonstrate. Sit-in. Stand-up. Vote. Be constructive, not destructive. History has proven time and again that non-violent, peaceful protest is the way to achieve the justice and equality that we all deserve.”