On one occasion early in the Obama presidency, while I was a graduate student at American University, I was my dads plus-one to a happy hour-of-sorts at the White House. There, we were free to socialize and roam the main floor. That evening I got to shake the presidents and Michelle Obamas hands, Vice President Joe Bidens hand.
At one point, my dad said, Come here, you have to meet the coolest person in the room. I couldnt imagine who in the world could possibly compare to the other American giants Id met that evening.
But, there in the Entrance Hall of the White House was where I first met U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who died on July 17 at the age of 80. Of course, my dad was right, as he later remarked, Obamas cool, but John Lewis is a hero.
Some time later, as part of my grad school program, I was teaching a semester of history at School Without Walls. Its called School Without Walls, in part, because teachers and students are encouraged to use the resources outside of the school (museums, monuments, libraries and so on) in their educational experience.
One of the units I had the fortune of teaching was the Civil Rights Movement. For a 20-something white guy from Kentucky, teaching the Civil Rights Movement to a 95%-non-white class of teenagers was a daunting challenge. I thought Id wow them, so I asked my dad if we could find a time for me to bring the students to his office on Capitol Hill for a class discussion on civil rights.
I think I can do one better, he said. Again, he was right.
He asked Rep. Lewis if he would host the class. Lewis, according to my dad, was excited to host us, which he did, for over an hour in his office.
With kids on Congressman Lewis office sofa, chairs, floor and even the chair behind his desk, Lewis started by showing a short film featuring himself and his role in the civil rights movement, which included video from Bloody Sunday, when Lewis was nearly beaten to death by Alabama police while he and protesters tried to cross the bridge to Selma. During a clip of Lewis speech from the March on Washington, I remember as one Black student turned to look at Lewis, nearly 50 years older than the man standing before the Lincoln Memorial and recognizing the gravity of the 5-foot 5-inch giant standing in the corner of the room.
Teachers often talk about the satisfaction watching the lightbulb go on when a student gets it. I wasnt prepared to fight back tears watching this particular student, as he discovered a hero.
As much as I cherish this moment and the opportunity to introduce this group of kids to a civil rights icon, it is also the source of some resentment for realizing the void in my own education. I knew who Martin Luther King Jr. was at a young age. Not Lewis and countless others.
I cant say for sure that John Lewis name was not included in any of my schoolbooks. Yet, Id be willing to bet that Edmund Pettus name as in the Edmund Pettus Bridge that activists crossed on Bloody Sunday is in more schoolbooks than John Lewis name. Edmund Pettus was a Confederate brigadier general, later a U.S. senator and grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. In the context of the civil rights movement, how can the name most associated with Bloody Sunday in history books be that of the traitor and terrorist?
As long as the bridge stands, it will be synonymous with John Lewis and civil rights. It needs to be renamed, so John Lewis name is honored and the others forgotten. One serves to inspire. The other serves no purpose. The history books need to change, too. We dont know how many heroes were missing out on.
I had hoped to one day take my son, JD, nearly 1, to Washington to meet John Lewis, if for no other reason than to have the picture. And, perhaps, one day I could relive the moment when he realized that he, too, met the man who spoke alongside King at the March on Washington.
Unfortunately, we will never be able to take that picture. But, I will make sure that the moment he learns who Dr. King was, he will learn who John Lewis was: his grandfathers friend and his hero.
This article appears in July 22, 2020.