In His Words – John Lewis and the Good Fight

The Words of legendary Civil Rights leader and U.S. Congressman John Lewis have and will continue to inspire us.

In this 1973 interview with the Southern Oral History Program (SOHP), Congressman Lewis shares the lessons his parents taught him and how that impacted his fight for freedom and rights. This interview was recorded November 23, 1973 when Congressman Lewis was interviewed by Jack Bass and Walter Devries for SOHP. The recording was digitized by Aaron Smithers with the Southern Folklife Collection at UNC Library.

EXCERPT

“I feel that what we did was necessary. It helped to start something. And if I had to do it all over again, I would. To me, it gave the feeling of being part of a crusade, sort of a movement. It was just not another angle. It was part of a process and after that particular demonstration, there was a series of other demonstrations in Nashville. There were other arrests, other acts of violence, particularly during the month of March and April. We had a bombing. One of the attorneys that had been defending us, I think it was April 19, 1960, about six o’clock in the morning, the home of Z. Alexander Looby, he was one of the attorneys for the Legal Defense Fund, who taught part-time at Fisk, his home was bombed. He lived across the street from Meharry Medical College and the bomb impact broke the windows of the school.”