Former President Barack Obama delivered the eulogy for the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., Thursday afternoon, capping off a day of heartfelt tributes to honor the legacy of the civil rights icon and the example he set for America to keep marching toward racial justice and a more perfect union.
Obama looked back on Lewis's storied legacy to dismantle America's system of segregationism and prejudice while issuing a political call to action to tackle today's unfinished business."You want to honor, John? Let's honor him by revitalizing the law that he was willing to die for," Obama said.
Obama continued: “We may no longer have to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar in order to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here, there are those in power, who are doing their darndest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision -- even undermining the postal service in the run-up to an election that's going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so...
“John Lewis believed in the Lord. He believed in humanity and he believed in America," said Bush, who was joined by former first lady Laura Bush. "He’s been called an America saint.”"It's important that all of us who loved him remember that he was after all a human being --a man like all other humans, born with strengths that he made the most of when many don't," Clinton said. "Born with weaknesses, that he worked hard to beat down when many can't.
Lewis, a longtime friend of the Clintons, initially endorsed Hillary Clinton, then a senator from New York, during the 2008 presidential election, but switched to Obama after the Georgia primary to reflect the will of his constituents., who would go on to win the primary and the presidency. "There is a movement, there is a spirit, there is an enthusiasm in the hearts and minds of the American people that I have not seen in a long time, since the candidacy of Robert Kennedy.
"I've come here today because I, like so many Americans, owe a great debt to John Lewis and his forceful vision of freedom," the nation's first African American president said.
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