2 Legends of Civil Rights

A Civil Rights Trio: John Lewis, Julian Bond and Eleanor Norton Holmes

For John Lewis, one of the most beaten, bloodied, but never bowed veterans of the Civil Rights era, the decision to become involved in the Freedom Movement was as simple as black and white.


"I grew up in the South and I saw the for whites and for coloreds only signs and I didn't like it," says Lewis, now a long-time Congressman from Georgia. "My parents were worried and said 'don't get in the way' but Dr. Martin Luther King inspired me to get in the way, to get into trouble."

Tonight, Lewis was joined at Busboys and Poets by his friend of more than 50 years and fellow Civil Rights activist Julian Bond, a longtime Georgia legislator and now a DC-area professor, for an informative, insightful 2-hour discussion by 2 revered black men who not only lived history, but made it.

Bond said he was called to the movement as a young Morehouse College student appalled by "the system of apartheid" operating in the south in America at that time. "The society would not let me achieve all I could have or should have," Bond told the overflow crowd, which packed the Langston Hughes room and even filled every foot of the stage which wasn't being used by the 2 presenters and the night's moderator, DC Congress representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, herself a member of  many of the same battles that Lewis and Bond fought.

In fact, the Lewis/Bond/Norton trio, all early members of SNCC (The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) encapsulated many of the attributes that led to the actual overcoming of America's blatantly policies and laws: Lewis with his courage and firebrand oratory (Bond called him "the bravest, most courageous person we had ever met"), Bond with his erudite brilliance and impressive writing talents, and Norton with her keen legal mind.

History has shown that SNCC, often referred to as the shock troops of Civil Rights, played a crucial role in forcing America, and particularly the South, to finally live up to the creeds called for in its Constitution. "Jimmy Carter said if you wanted to scare Southerners, the name of Martin Luther King wouldn't do that. You just needed to say 4 letters S-N-C-C," Bond said.

Obviously, much of the night was filled with riveting inside tales of the turbulent 60s. For example, Bond told a fascinating story about how he was able to obtain housing for a group of alternate Georgia delegates to the infamous 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago."I was in charge of finding rooms for about 50 people and, of course, we couldn't. The Convention was in town," Bond said. After being turned down at yet another hotel, he was approached by a well-dressed black man who said maybe he could help. The bow-tied man went back into the hotel and returned having procured the needed rooms. But a towering problem still remained - Bond and his group had no money. The man replied that Bond should see if his boss - a certain gentleman by the name of Right Honorable Prophet Elijah Muhammad - could help. So a meeting was arranged where Bond would ask the leader of the Black Muslims and his followers for financial assistance. Bond said after making his plea, the Muslim women said the money which "he'll give to the White devil" should not be offered. The Muslim men said it should. Mohammad turned to Bond and said, "we listen to the women, but we do what the men say to do" and handed him $3,000.

Lewis jokingly noted that he "wore a backpack before it was fashionable." In that backpack, he stored at least 2 books, a toothbrush, toothpaste, 1 apple, and 1 orange so he would always be prepared for yet another of the inevitable jailings for his protest.

While SNCC was committed to the high moral road of non-violence in both rhetoric and action, such a stance was extremely difficult given the range of assaults against members. Bond recalled one time when group leader James Farmer exclaimed: "If we can't sit at the table, we're going to tear the fucking legs off the table."

And while all the various Civil Rights groups tried to work together for the good of the cause, disputes about terms and tactics could arise. Lewis detailed the story behind his altering his speech at the 1963 March on Washington, the same protest that produced Martin Luther King's immortal "I Have a Dream" speech. Lewis was one of 6 Civil Rights speakers scheduled that day. However, when a preview copy of his remarks was circulated, objections arose over their nature, specifically lines that said if advances in Civil Rights were not immediately forthcoming, African-Americans would be "forced to march through Georgia the way (Civil War General) Sherman did." Lewis said he was called to a meeting to get him to temper his remarks. "Dr. King pulled me aside and said 'John, this doesn't sound like you,'" Lewis said, explaining that eventually he was allowed to give an altered speech.

Several of the tales filled with violence elicited gasps from the crowd, many of whom were born long-after the 60s. Lewis recalled his encounter with an Alabama sheriff who carried a gun on 1 hip, a nightstick on the other, and an electrified cattle prod in his hand. "I think he woke up mean," Lewis said. "He was a sick, vicious man." Norton recalled finding 50-year-old Fannie Lou Hamer brutally beaten in a sweltering Mississippi jail simply for having the audacity to believe she had the right to vote. Norton said even more horrifying was the fact the white jailers had forced a black trustee of the jail to administer Hamer's beating, threatening him with even worse brutality if he didn't submit to their orders.

Lewis and Bond said they were particularly gratified to see so many young people in attendance.  Bond pointed out that much of the initial Civil Rights push was "youth-oriented." Lewis agreed, but added the caution that the fight for freedom can bring danger, no matter what the age of the participant. He specifically cited the Mississippi murders of  20-year-old southern black James Chaney and his two white activist northern partners, 20-year-old Andrew Goldman and 24-year-old Michael Schwerner.

"They just wanted to help," Lewis said. "They were jailed and then turned over to the Klan. And then they were murdered. We talk about terrorism. This was terrorism. The South was terrorist territory. They didn't die in Vietnam, they died right here in our country," Lewis said, noting that they and all the others who sacrificed for the struggle should never be forgotten.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
In her opening remarks, Norton set the stage well for the remarkable 2 hours that were to follow. "This is Black History month and you're supposed to find yourself some blacks in a history book or somewhere," she said. "We thought we'd bring you some live TV tonight. There's lots of black history walking around the streets everyday. Tonight, we have 2 legends, 2 veterans of the campaigns when the South (for blacks) was terrorist territory."