John Lewis, civil rights icon, has died at 80

[TitoFan]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-le...reatic-cancer/


Died of pancreatic cancer.... tough way to go.

In any case, I was never too familiar with John Lewis, but it appears he was a good man, fighting for the civil rights of blacks and even speaking alongside Martin Luther King back in the day.

He fought tirelessly throughout his life for the rights of blacks.... and yet had the humility and wisdom to speak out against the rioting and looting that accompanied the George Floyd protests.

(BTW, these are my words... not quoting or paraphrasing anybody).

In these times of racial polarization, with everything that's going on... it's a shame that Lewis couldn't live to see some real progress in the racial strife that affects the country.

Regardless of which side you're on, think one should at least recognize a good man when they see one.

Apparently he coined the phrase "good trouble", as the kind of trouble he would get into by engaging in protests for the rights of blacks.

IMO, people like these are few and far between..... and it's too bad we don't have more John Lewises.

[NoSavingByTheBell]

John Lewis embodied the idea of civil disobedience among many other admirable things. His efforts go way back. He also worked closely with Medgar Evers.

[SlimTrae]

Two posts, scratch that, three lets you know; there is no such thing as a black leader in this country. Just race baiters and racists. He took part in protests before liberals took it over, as a result it was the cops kickin ass. Today they shoot to kill.

By the time he was old enough to vote, the south still prohibited it. And when those Democratic leaders failed to stop Voting Rights & Civil Rights that John & his mentor Martin Luther King Jr. fought for- they simply changed parties and won seats as Republicans, including Ronald Reagan.

This man, John Lewis understood racism as actions not words.

Supreme Court decisions were never followed by states, what a damn shame it took federal intervention on small stuff like an inability to take integrated buss rides cross country. The Freedom Riders, led by Mr. Lewis were denied by Christians, not Muslims nor atheists.

By age 24 he had been arrested that many times, all for trying to get something called civil rights. Nobody back then could say, well lets wait and see what he got arrested for. He obeyed the law, believed in Jesus and still took beatings.

His continued whoopin' were at the hands of police, not KKK. No self respecting white man or any man will take an ass whooping for freedom-without fighting back. The scars on his head was the result of attempting to pray once he and 600 marchers got to the end of the Edmund Pettus Bridge known as Bloody Sunday as Alabama State Troopers fractured his skull.
And they wonder why so few of us believe in prayer today.

But he and Martin had that idea of following the Bible's turn the other cheek & love thy enemy like a neighbor. And his passing away shows how futile that mindset turned out to be

May peace be upon a man who had the courage to stay the course, May the creator do as Bible states once there comes a single ruler over earth- Judge the nations.

[Master]

I did not know anything about John Lewis until now after his death but what a great man he was from all accounts. RIP.

[TitoFan]

This wasn't the 1800's when slavery was a "legal" and accepted way of life.

This was in fucking 1965, barely over 50 years ago.

I've known about the Civil Rights movement and Martin Luther King most of my life. But I didn't know much about John Lewis..... and I CERTAINLY didn't know the details of that first Selma bridge march in 1965.



Fucking brutal... how fucking POLICE OFFICERS descended onto a peaceful crowd...... ran over them..... and beat them unmercifully.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.



Had I been born a black person in the 1940's-'50s and been subjected to that kind of racist, segregationist shit....... I'd eventually have gotten lynched, because I would've been one rebellious, belligerent muthafukker.



It is MIND_BOGGLING how the evils of the past actually lasted SO FAR into modern times.

Which in turn makes it more understandable how there can STILL be so many fucking ignorant people when it comes to race and racial relations.

In the perspective of human history, this march was JUST THE OTHER DAY.

Affirmative Action be damned.

Band-Aids do not cure the ills of society. That's why I continue to believe that FUCK all these meaningless changing of syrup brands and old movie censoring.

What is needed is some good old fashioned "roll-up-your-sleeves" and "let's get to work" efforts to right the wrongs of the not so distant past.

[NoSavingByTheBell]

I'm all for it, whatever it takes, whatever works, cuz welfare is just another form of slavery, and it was deliberately done to perpetuate the evil. Slavery has never ended.

[Denilson3.0]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-le...reatic-cancer/


Died of pancreatic cancer.... tough way to go.

In any case, I was never too familiar with John Lewis, but it appears he was a good man, fighting for the civil rights of blacks and even speaking alongside Martin Luther King back in the day.

He fought tirelessly throughout his life for the rights of blacks.... and yet had the humility and wisdom to speak out against the rioting and looting that accompanied the George Floyd protests.

(BTW, these are my words... not quoting or paraphrasing anybody).

In these times of racial polarization, with everything that's going on... it's a shame that Lewis couldn't live to see some real progress in the racial strife that affects the country.

Regardless of which side you're on, think one should at least recognize a good man when they see one.

Apparently he coined the phrase "good trouble", as the kind of trouble he would get into by engaging in protests for the rights of blacks.

IMO, people like these are few and far between..... and it's too bad we don't have more John Lewises.

The only people the white media refer to as "Civil Rights Icons" are the Black people who did not advocate fighting back

John Lewis was more of an icon to white society. Because he promoted the ideology of passivity and forgiveness for white supremacist terrorism. People like Stokely Carmichael and others marched with MLK as well. But the white media never refers to Stokely as a "Civil Rights Icon" Thats because Stokely wasn't with that "nonviolent protest" bs. He wasn’t with selling out for trinkets and govt jobs.



Dr. Khalid Mohammed would never mention in mainstream media as a civil rights icon. And they would never mention Malcolm X. as a civil rights legend. Because they did not compromise with Jim Crowe and white supremacists.





They also pick and choose which history to teach. American schools don't teach about slave revolts, African kingdoms, African contributions to society. It's just slavery -> MLK -> civil rights act -> Obama

All this "praising" him is code for young black folk to take on the same passive docile behavior.

[TitoFan]

Only YOU can turn praise for a truly good and admirable man (who BTW probably had 10,000 times the courage and gumption that you'll ever have)...... and twist it into some racist fantasy of yours, all the while tarnishing his legacy.

The fuck have YOU done with your 30-some years of life?

That's what I thought.

[El Kabong]

The only people the white media refer to as "Civil Rights Icons" are the Black people who did not advocate fighting back

John Lewis was more of an icon to white society. Because he promoted the ideology of passivity and forgiveness for white supremacist terrorism. People like Stokely Carmichael and others marched with MLK as well. But the white media never refers to Stokely as a "Civil Rights Icon" Thats because Stokely wasn't with that "nonviolent protest" bs. He wasn’t with selling out for trinkets and govt jobs.



Dr. Khalid Mohammed would never mention in mainstream media as a civil rights icon. And they would never mention Malcolm X. as a civil rights legend. Because they did not compromise with Jim Crowe and white supremacists.





They also pick and choose which history to teach. American schools don't teach about slave revolts, African kingdoms, African contributions to society. It's just slavery -> MLK -> civil rights act -> Obama

All this "praising" him is code for young black folk to take on the same passive docile behavior.

One of my civics teachers was actually a Black Panther so you would be mistaken in your assumption.

John Lewis was part of the political process, he was more involved in creating change than mere protesters or rioters or organizers. "Violent protest" isn't glorified in our culture, and there's a reason for that. It isn't looked up to, it isn't hailed as something positive because it's not. It's easy to get someone to acquiesce at the barrel of a gun, it's harder to deal with those whom you dislike and distrust and disagree with and achieve a solution for all parties and THAT is held higher in our society for a reason because PEACE is fleeting and it's not the norm of human history.


"American schools don't teach about slave revolts"....like John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry? Or Nat Turner? Or Denmark Vesey? Or when the slaves ran from the Cherokee and attempted to reach Mexico? Like THOSE things? Why in America you might even learn about the New York Conspiracy of 1741 if you took the right classes. But you were saying?


African Kingdoms are relatively difficult to teach about what with their penchant for not making historical records of their dealings. I've read about the Ndebele Kingdom and the Matabele Wars...wasn't due to Ndebele warriors or elders keeping accounts of it though. It's a different culture with emphasis on different things and the majority of folks in America aren't of that culture. There's no way in hell that each and every student learns about 100% of all cultures so I don't know what to tell you....cry harder?

It's code is it? Passivity and docility are pushed upon young blacks eh? Must be why Chicago is so peaceful....oh wait, that's white supremacy

[X]

​What a shame, a great man. I particularly liked the one with the fox on the trampoline. 'Never knowingly undersold' are wise words indeed to resound through future generations

[Denilson3.0]

John Lewis was part of the political process, he was more involved in creating change than mere protesters or rioters or organizers.

His goal was white acceptance and non violence. Not black empowerment.

Now here's the thing

Name me a white John Lewis ?

Name me a white man who in his struggle for freedom, justice and equality, land and wealth power and was assaulted by non white people that they hold up as an icon because he didn't fight bk ?

Name one ?

White folks love a Harry S Truman for dropping nuke on the Japs for Pearl Harbour

We can go down the line Jimmy Hoffa, Julius Ceasar, Braveheart, King Leonidas, Augustus Ceaser

"Violent protest" isn't glorified in our culture, and there's a reason for that. It isn't looked up to, it isn't hailed as something positive because it's not.

White supremacist culture is and has been based on violence and has been that way for 400 year. White people reward their killers like General Schwarzkopf, General Westmoreland, General Patton, General MacArthur, General Eissenhower. Those killers get ribbons, stripes and bars
(Medal of Honour, Silver Star, Purple heart with cluster etc)

It's easy to get someone to acquiesce at the barrel of a gun

Well it's not always. USA had guns and were more technologically in terms of military that the Vietnamese. They didn't acquiesce. So America still lost and got their asses kicked by them.

it's harder to deal with those whom you dislike and distrust and disagree with and achieve a solution for all parties and THAT is held higher in our society for a reason because PEACE is fleeting and it's not the norm of human history.

Peace is not the norm of white supremacist history. I agree.

But if your saying that white people are by nature un-peaceful then how is John Clarke's non violent approach going to work ?

i
"American schools don't teach about slave revolts"....like John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry? Or Nat Turner? Or Denmark Vesey? Or when the slaves ran from the Cherokee and attempted to reach Mexico?

Yes and I'm pretty sure you wasn't taught any of that at school

African Kingdoms are relatively difficult to teach about what with their penchant for not making historical records of their dealings.

They find it very easy to teach you and other that the image you have of Africa Africa is that it's a violent hellhole, savage and cruel, a place of war, genocide, famine, slums, disease, failed states, refugee camps, etc. Aids, malaria and Ebola. Idi Amin, Mugabe and now Kony. Rwanda and Darfur. Somali pirates. Corrupt government officials. Child soldiers. Black men raping virgins to spread Aids. The heroes of this piece? White saviours, like Bono and Miss Jolie.

They have no problem teaching you that.

i
There's no way in hell that each and every student learns about 100% of all cultures so I don't know what to tell you....cry harder?

Why do some white people in discussions on race with a black person often want to talk about feelings ? What's feelings got to do with anything ?

[TitoFan]

John Lewis was part of the political process, he was more involved in creating change than mere protesters or rioters or organizers.

His goal was white acceptance and non violence. Not black empowerment.
Why do some white people in discussions on race with a black person often want to talk about feelings ? What's feelings got to do with anything ?

Let's establish once again that some of us here engage you only out of morbid patience, knowing you'll never alter your extremist views on race. (There you go again....... see my thread on extremism).

Let's also be clear. John Lewis did more to attempt to advance the cause of blacks in society in any given hour of any 24-hour day of his entire life, than you can ever hope to do in a million lifetimes. Lewis was a decent man, who fought and struggled against the remnants of slavery and the white superiority complex that has followed throughout the next couple of centuries.

His goal was non-violence, yes. But let me put a question to you.

What do you think would have had more of a chance to obtain the civil rights reforms that finally resulted in the 60's (knowing there is a LOT more to go).............

a) non-violence like Lewis preached?
b) violence like you seem to prefer?

You honestly think that a bunch of Malcolm X's on their own without the balance provided by the MLK's and John Lewises of the world would've achieved the equality you speak of?
Hardly.

The real world don't work that way. You may be able to bully some white dude on the street because in your mind he's a white supremacist and you're gonna take out your frustrations on him, but....... is that really gonna change anything?

I posted the following to you and did not get an answer.

Only YOU can turn praise for a truly good and admirable man (who BTW probably had 10,000 times the courage and gumption that you'll ever have)...... and twist it into some racist fantasy of yours, all the while tarnishing his legacy.

The fuck have YOU done with your 30-some years of life?

That's what I thought.

Why is that? Because you know when someone's on to your shtick and you decide to look elsewhere?

I'll ask again... what have YOU done with your life that qualifies you to criticize a great human being like John Lewis?

[El Kabong]

John Lewis was part of the political process, he was more involved in creating change than mere protesters or rioters or organizers.

His goal was white acceptance and non violence. Not black empowerment.

Now here's the thing

Name me a white John Lewis ?

Name me a white man who in his struggle for freedom, justice and equality, land and wealth power and was assaulted by non white people that they hold up as an icon because he didn't fight bk ?

Name one ?

White folks love a Harry S Truman for dropping nuke on the Japs for Pearl Harbour

We can go down the line Jimmy Hoffa, Julius Ceasar, Braveheart, King Leonidas, Augustus Ceaser

"Violent protest" isn't glorified in our culture, and there's a reason for that. It isn't looked up to, it isn't hailed as something positive because it's not.

White supremacist culture is and has been based on violence and has been that way for 400 year. White people reward their killers like General Schwarzkopf, General Westmoreland, General Patton, General MacArthur, General Eissenhower. Those killers get ribbons, stripes and bars
(Medal of Honour, Silver Star, Purple heart with cluster etc)

It's easy to get someone to acquiesce at the barrel of a gun

Well it's not always. USA had guns and were more technologically in terms of military that the Vietnamese. They didn't acquiesce. So America still lost and got their asses kicked by them.

it's harder to deal with those whom you dislike and distrust and disagree with and achieve a solution for all parties and THAT is held higher in our society for a reason because PEACE is fleeting and it's not the norm of human history.

Peace is not the norm of white supremacist history. I agree.

But if your saying that white people are by nature un-peaceful then how is John Clarke's non violent approach going to work ?

i
"American schools don't teach about slave revolts"....like John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry? Or Nat Turner? Or Denmark Vesey? Or when the slaves ran from the Cherokee and attempted to reach Mexico?

Yes and I'm pretty sure you wasn't taught any of that at school

African Kingdoms are relatively difficult to teach about what with their penchant for not making historical records of their dealings.

They find it very easy to teach you and other that the image you have of Africa Africa is that it's a violent hellhole, savage and cruel, a place of war, genocide, famine, slums, disease, failed states, refugee camps, etc. Aids, malaria and Ebola. Idi Amin, Mugabe and now Kony. Rwanda and Darfur. Somali pirates. Corrupt government officials. Child soldiers. Black men raping virgins to spread Aids. The heroes of this piece? White saviours, like Bono and Miss Jolie.

They have no problem teaching you that.

i
There's no way in hell that each and every student learns about 100% of all cultures so I don't know what to tell you....cry harder?

Why do some white people in discussions on race with a black person often want to talk about feelings ? What's feelings got to do with anything ?

Denilson disagreeing with me?!?!?!

Why I never in a million years would have expected this!!!!

[Denilson3.0]

Let's establish once again that some of us here engage you only out of morbid patience, knowing you'll never alter your extremist views on race. (There you go again....... see my thread on extremism).

I don't have extremist views on race.

I disagree with you. For some reason you seem to fall apart and can't fathom that some one that does not see the world the way you do.

Of the 2000 hate groups less than 1% are based on Black hate towards whites and over 90% are based on whites hating blacks. Go figure.

That's extremism.

Let's also be clear. John Lewis did more to attempt to advance the cause of blacks in society in any given hour of any 24-hour day of his entire life, than you can ever hope to do in a million lifetimes.

What did John Lewis for black people after he was elected to congress ? He was a united states congressman for 30 years.

What did he do ?

Lewis was a decent man, who fought and struggled against the remnants of slavery and the white superiority complex that has followed throughout the next couple of centuries.

What are you talking about ?

Black people (generally) don't care how white people think. Black people care about what white people do. A white person can have white superiority complex all day. I don't give a care about that. I'm only concerned about what he is going to do.

Remnants of slavery ? What are you talking about ?

Look. Whenever black people rose up, John Lewis was to be the good negro who would get out there and say "Well you shouldn't be rioting now. You should nt be burned down stuff now" John Lewis did nothing for black people and he dined out on being attacked in Selma on the Edmund Pettus bridge for 50 years.

His goal was non-violence, yes. But let me put a question to you.

What do you think would have had more of a chance to obtain the civil rights reforms that finally resulted in the 60's (knowing there is a LOT more to go).............

a) non-violence like Lewis preached?
b) violence like you seem to prefer?

You honestly think that a bunch of Malcolm X's on their own without the balance provided by the MLK's and John Lewises of the world would've achieved the equality you speak of?
Hardly.

So you're saying that white people in the 60's woke up one day and said "Hey !! We're tired of this racism. We are gonna play the game straight with black people and give them a proper slice of the cake. That John Lewis just made me see sense"

If the police were killing unarmed white children and white people at the rates they do black ppl, then white people would be blowing up police stations tomorrow.

If the shoe was on the other foot ? Whites would have a murderous rage towards blk ppl.

White people freak out at even 1% of oppression. You have some nerve.

Your preaching non violence to black people who are getting killed and certainly more so in the 60's when John Lewis was a young man

But a few months back white people were angry at not being able to get a hair cut or play golf





In fact white people picked up guns for this. White people thought it was facism when they couldn't plant seeds in their garden.

Plus black ppl for 300 years have tried doing it the calm way. You can go to any bookstore or any library, there are films, songs, talks and speeches on racism.

But what do we get ? "Sort out your crime rate" "Sort out your illegitimacy rate out"

Colin Kapernick says "Stop killing unarmed blk ppl"

He gets blacklisted from NFL.

The reason why some civil rights were passed was because of violence.

What ? You think these violent George Floyd protests would have worked if black people were not violent and instead they sent a nice polite letter to the governor of Floyd state telling to stop systematic racism in the police.

The real world don't work that way. You may be able to bully some white dude on the street because in your mind he's a white supremacist and you're gonna take out your frustrations on him, but....... is that really gonna change anything?

A black person can come up to a white person and bash their skull with a rock because he doesn’t like white people but that is not racism, that is an individual acting as an individual and there is no system in place that will support his right to harm white, In fact, he will go to JAIL.

Plus blk ppl know they will be severely punished for harming a white person.

But white policeman can murder black people and get away with it because there is a system in place that allows them to do it. (the courts, the police, the judge etc)

Because the Dred Scott Supreme Court ruling, which was never overturned is still the law of the land. So the U.S. Supreme Court is partly to blame for the persistent murders of African Americans by police.

The police are the enforcement arm of white supremacy and law enforcement has been infested by white supremacists and nothing has been done to root them out.

That's why all the madness and rioting on the streets is happening.

There are white supremacist beat cops, sergeants, captains, police chiefs and prosecutors who are using sheriff departments as havens and nests were white supremacist can be hired to kill black ppl and the white supremacist district attorney will back them up on it.

I'll ask again... what have YOU done with your life that qualifies you to criticize a great human being like John Lewis?

Adolf Hitler has done more in his life than I have done in a million lifetimes. What's your point ?

Does that mean Hitler is above questioning ?

[NoSavingByTheBell]

I have to admit, Denilson raises a lot of good points. I will look into Lewis and see now in my research if he can be found to be a useless congressman.

Also, its good to question things.

I think though what the others in this thread are saying, is that this was a tribute thread and somehow it got turned into white vs black again.....