Best John Lewis Quotes
Best Inspirational John Lewis Quotes about Voting, Education, and Social Justice! John Lewis’s full name was John Robert Lewis was born On February 21, 1940, outside Troy, Alabama. When John Lewis was a child, he lived in an age of racial discrimination. Nevertheless, Lewis spent the rest of his life protecting and improving the rights of Black people in the United States of America. Although he was beaten and arrested as a Freedom Rider in the early 1960s, he sparked waves of people when he walked with Martin Luther King Jr. at the 1963 March on Washington. In addition, he was a member of the House of Representatives for Georgia for nearly four years.
Lewis worked very hard to get the Voting Rights Advancement Act into law towards the end of his life. This act would have ensured that every American had the right to vote, which was taken away by the Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder decision in 2013.
Lewis said in June 2019, “I’ve said this before, and I’ll repeat it.” “Having a vote is important. So many people think that it is almost a religious thing. People in a democracy have the most powerful non-violent tool they can use.”
Congress elected him in 1986, and he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. While John Lewis, the iconic civil rights leader who died on July 17 at the age of 80, his legacy of taking on the “good issue” of institutional racism is still very much alive and well endured for years to come.
Top 10 Best John Lewis Quotes
1. “I say to people today, ‘You must be prepared if you believe in something. If you believe in something, you have to go for it. As individuals, we may not live to see the end.” – John Lewis
2. “You must be bold, brave, and courageous and find a way… to get in the way.” – John Lewis
3. “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.” – John Lewis
4. “I want to see young people in America feel the spirit of the 1960s and find a way to get in the way. To find a way to get in trouble. Good trouble, necessary trouble.” – John Lewis
5. “The civil rights movement was based on faith. Many of us who were participants in this movement saw our involvement as an extension of our faith. We saw ourselves doing the work of the Almighty. Segregation and racial discrimination were not in keeping with our faith, so we had to do something.” – John Lewis
6. “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.” – John Lewis
7. “Rosa Parks inspired me to find a way to get in the way, to get in trouble… good trouble, necessary trouble.” – John Lewis
8. “We need some creative tension; people crying out for the things they want.” – John Lewis
9. “What I try to tell young people is that if you come together with a mission, and it’s grounded with love and a sense of community, you can make the impossible possible.” – John Lewis
10. “Before we went on any protest, whether it was sit-ins or the freedom rides or any march, we prepared ourselves, and we were disciplined. We were committed to the way of peace – the way of non-violence – the way of love – the way of life as the way of living.” – John Lewis