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Former
President
Barack
Obama,
addresses
the
service.
On the
sixth
day of
the
“Celebration
of Life”
for Rep.
John
Lewis,
his
funeral
is held
at
Ebenezer
Baptist
Church
in
Atlanta,
with
burial
to
follow.
(Alyssa
Pointer
/
alyssa.pointer@ajc.com)
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Opinion:
John
Lewis
set the
theme
for his
own
funeral.
Donald
Trump
showed
why it
was
necessary
By
Jim
Galloway
ajc.com
ATLANTA
- A
fragile
former
U.S.
president
sent his
condolences,
but
three
others
personally
took the
pulpit
and
urged
mourners
to press
on with
the
congressman’s
work. A
fifth
president,
the
current
one,
demonstrated
why such
vigilance
was
necessary.
Donald
Trump
wasn't
in the
church
on
Auburn
Avenue.
His name
wasn't
even
spoken
during
the
invitation-only
event.
But it
is safe
to say
that he
was in
the
heads of
nearly
all of
those
who came
to bid
Lewis
goodbye.
Two
hours
before
the
service
began,
the
leader
of the
free
world
announced
via
Twitter
that
voting
by mail
—
necessary
during a
pandemic
— is a
fraud,
and
suggested
this:
“Delay
the
Election
until
people
can
properly,
securely
and
safely
vote???”
No
doubt,
the
president
was
attempting
to
distract
from the
morning’s
economic
statistics,
which
showed
that the
United
States
had just
dragged
itself
through
the
worst
economic
quarter
since
the end
of World
War II.
Still,
making
light of
the
right to
vote
doesn't
go down
well in
an
African
American
church
about to
bury a
man who
time and
time
again
put his
life on
the line
to give
Black
Southerners
access
to the
ballot
box.
I
will not
say that
any
Baptist
church
would
put
anything
before
the Holy
Trinity,
but at
Ebenezer
in
particular,
the
right to
vote
runs a
close
fourth.
Perhaps
John
Lewis
anticipated
Trump’s
mischief.
Not long
after
Trump
launched
his
Twitter
bombs,
newspapers
across
the
country,
including
this
one,
began
publishing
a final
essay
that
Lewis
had
penned —
and
embargoed
until
the day
of his
funeral.
“Voting
and
participating
in the
democratic
process
are
key,”
Lewis
wrote.
“The
vote is
the most
powerful
nonviolent
change
agent
you have
in a
democratic
society.
You must
use it
because
it is
not
guaranteed.
You can
lose
it.”
It
is a
thoughtful
man who
sets the
theme
for his
own
funeral.
“Let’s
sing the
song of
our
democracy
together,”
the Rev.
Raphael
Warnock,
the
Ebenezer
pastor
who
himself
is a
candidate
for the
U.S.
Senate,
said at
the
beginning
of the
proceedings.
Warnock
introduced
George
W. Bush
as the
man “who
was the
president
the last
time we
authorized
the
Voting
Rights
Act.”
(His
father,
George
H.W.
Bush,
did
likewise.)
Like
many
others,
Bush
spoke of
accompanying
Lewis on
a walk
across
the
Edmund
Pettus
Bridge
in
Selma,
marking
the
anniversary
of that
Bloody
Sunday.
“John
and I
had our
disagreements
of
course,”
Bush
said —
not
elaborating
on the
fact
that the
Iraq War
was one
of them.
“But in
the
America
that
John
Lewis
fought
for, in
the
America
that I
believe,
differences
of
opinion
are
inevitable
elements
–— and
evidence
of
democracy
in
action.”
Former
President
Bill
Clinton
dove
into the
weedy
history
of the
civil
rights
movement,
telling
the
story of
Lewis’
ouster
as head
of the
Student
Nonviolent
Coordinating
Committee
in 1966.
“It must
have
been
painful
to lose,
but he
showed
as a
young
man that
there
are some
things
that you
cannot
do to
hang
onto a
position
—because
if you
do those
[things],
you
won’t be
who you
are
anymore,”
Clinton
said.
It
was a
curious
observation
that may
or may
not have
been
intended
for a
White
House
resident
who has
hinted
that he
might
stay on
if he
doesn’t
consider
a Nov. 3
defeat
to be
legitimate.
House
Speaker
Nancy
Pelosi,
voice
cracking,
emphasized
her
personal
relationship
with
Lewis,
but
pointed
to her
colleague’s
last
written
words.
Xernona
Clayton,
the
civil
rights
leader
and
Black
television
pioneer,
told of
the
behind-the-scenes
maneuvering
she
engaged
in to
bring
together
Lewis
and his
wife
Lillian,
who died
in 2012.
Yet
even
Clayton
closed
with
this:
“To
really
give
meaning
to the
John we
loved,
vote.”
She
was
followed
by
former
Atlanta
mayor
Bill
Campbell,
who
described
his
final
meeting
with the
congressional
veteran.
“In a
solemn
moment,
he
pulled
me
closer
and
whispered,
‘Everyone
has to
vote in
November.
It is
the most
important
election
ever.’”
Former
President
Barack
Obama,
of
course,
had
something
like the
last
word. He
offered
that
Lewis
may have
been
Martin
Luther
King
Jr.‘s
“finest
disciple.”
Lewis
knew
that the
contest
isn’t
over,
Obama
said.
“He knew
from his
own life
that
progress
was
fragile,
that we
had to
be
vigilant
against
the
darker
currents
of this
country’s
history.
Bull
Connor
may be
gone,
but
today we
witness
police
officers
kneeling
on the
necks of
Black
Americans.
“George
Wallace
may be
gone,
but we
can
witness
our
federal
government
sending
agents
to use
tear gas
and
batons
against
peaceful
demonstrators,”
the
former
president
said.
Obama
called
for a
revitalized
Voting
Rights
Act,
automatic
voter
registration,
and
making
Election
Day a
national
holiday
— all to
make it
easier
to cast
a
ballot.
“If
all of
this
takes
eliminating
the
[Senate]
filibuster,
another
Jim Crow
relic,
in order
to in
order to
secure
the
God-given
rights
of every
American,
then
that’s
what we
should
do,”
said
Obama,
who
served
briefly
in the
Senate.
Obama’s
endorsement
of doing
away
with the
filibuster,
a tool
that
gives a
Senate
minority
much
control
over the
chamber’s
agenda,
was
probably
the most
significant
bit of
news to
come out
of the
three-hour
service
-- a
sign of
“good
trouble”
to come.
John
Lewis
would
have
been
pleased
to hear
that.
And
perhaps
he did.
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