Memorializing the Honorable John Lewis

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend and colleague, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Walker), for yielding.

I join with my colleagues, both Republican and Democrat, who mourn the loss of John Lewis.

We have so many honors to be able to serve in a job like this where we get to represent the people of this Nation, especially here in the people's House where we truly do bring all of the different elements of what makes America great into one body with people who represent every different type of background and every different kind of community, the kinds of people we get to serve with.

There are giants among the people we have the honor of serving with. John Lewis was at the top of that list, and you knew it when you served with him.

I remember telling colleagues years ago that, while we have our differences, it is really important to go get to know especially some of the legends, the giants we serve with in this body.

I remember talking about two Members in particular: it was John Lewis and Sam Johnson, one Democrat, one Republican, two people who were just giants. Unfortunately, we have now lost both of them in the last year.

Our institution is better because John Lewis was a part of this great body, but it is what John fought for his whole life.

I know my colleague from North Carolina as well as my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus talked about, earlier, his mantra of ``good trouble.'' What John experienced in his life, there are so many people who have freedoms today they would never have if John hadn't gone through that.

I had an honor, like so many of my colleagues, to go with John, he invited Members from both parties to go to Selma to be a part of reliving that history, which was a dark side of our history, Bloody Sunday, but one that John used as a teachable moment to bring people from all parts of this country to walk across that Edmund Pettus Bridge. I got to walk arm in arm with John. It was one of the great honors I have had as a Member of Congress to be able to do that.

The whole time we were walking with him--this could be a moment that John wanted to just leave in his past because he was so brutally beaten, but he wanted to share the experiences. And as we were walking, we would round the corner, and he would point to different buildings. And he said: That is where we gathered. That is where some of the people who were trying to stop us would be.

He helped organize the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, SNCC. He started at a young age in the civil rights movement, at a time when it was not only difficult, but it was possibly life-threatening. And for many, they did lose their life in that battle.

And John lost blood. He shed blood for the cause. But he never took it as a moment to get down. He never took it as a moment to be bitter.

He wanted to continue fighting to make America a more perfect Union, and he did. And that is what we will remember about John. We will remember his warm-hearted spirit.

John was one of those very few people in a body like this where, when he stood at the podium to speak, no matter what side you were on on that issue, you stopped, you sat down, and you listened, because you knew you were listening to somebody who was larger than life.

John is in a better place right now, but America is a better place because John was here.

God bless John Lewis and his family.

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