Clearly, John Lewis’ story resonates with young activists today, says SmithsonianSec. When Lewis went to Black Lives Matter Plaza in June, he was passing the baton to them as surely as he had picked it up from leaders like Dr. King and Ella Baker
Lonnie G. Bunch III is secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He previously was founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
A horse-drawn carriage carrying the body of civil rights icon John Lewis crosses the Edmund Pettus Bridge on July 26 in Selma, Alabama. | Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Every time I met with the congressman, it was a chance to listen and learn. I took him through the African American museum many times, first when it was under construction and later when it was finished, a testament to his vision and tenacity. We discussed one of my proudest acquisitions as a curator at the National Museum of American History: the stools and part of the lunch counter from the Greensboro Woolworth’s where four North Carolina A&T students sat to protest segregation in 1960.
I think his instinct to look for the best of us is part of the reason the congressman organized annual bipartisan pilgrimages to the South with other members of Congress, an effort to bring to life some of the milestones of the civil rights movement. He knew how moving and transformative his firsthand recollections could be, especially in the settings where they took place.
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