CNN Presents 'John Lewis: Good Trouble' 0:30
(CNN) -
You can talk to whoever has known John Lewis, no matter how long and in one way or another you will hear the story of him preaching to his chickens.
It goes something like this: Lewis was a shy, stuttering black boy who was determined to preach growing up in rural Alabama during the Jim Crow era.
He practiced his calling by going to the chicken coop on his family's farm and lecturing his captive flock.
Lewis - whom his family calls Robert, his middle name - grew up so attached to his feathered congregation that he led chicken weddings, christenings, even held funerals.
When his chickens weren't available for services, he would round up his little brothers and cousins to lecture them.
They nicknamed him the "Preacher."
The congressman from Georgia, whose district includes Atlanta, has told the story of chickens so many times that when a friend invited him to speak a few words at a meeting of civil rights leaders, he jokingly warned Lewis.
“We warned you: 'Forget the chickens, we've already heard it,'” said Larry Rubin, a former field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), who worked alongside Lewis.
"You have only 5 minutes, the story of the chickens takes 10".
Time again put pressure on the long-standing Democrat, who had turned 80 in February.
In December of last year, he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, a very aggressive one that sometimes gives its victims very little time to live.
Lewis is irreplaceable.
He was the only surviving speaker from the '63 march in Washington.
He was at the forefront of the most dangerous campaigns of the time for the civil rights struggle: student protests and takeovers, the freedom rallies and, of course, the highlight of 1965 on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where Lewis and other protesters were attacked by state police with whips and clubs.
Lewis's place in history has been so well documented that it is difficult to find something new to say about him, unless you talk to people who have known him for a long time.
Here are some of Lewis' favorite anecdotes, plus a gem told by a journalist who covered Barack Obama's inauguration.
Obama, Bush and Clinton fire John Lewis 1:21
Disguised at Comic-Con
Lewis was often portrayed as a solemn voice of conscience, but his friends say he knew how to have fun.
They describe a man who started dancing cheesy choreography, who sang Lean on me at parties, and even someone who did cosplay (dress up).
In 2015, Lewis attended San Diego Comic-Con to promote his “March” graphic novel series, one of which won the National Book Award.
But he didn't just want to attend the convention, said Andrew Aydin, a co-author of “March” and one of Lewis's advisers.
"I want to disguise myself," he told Aydin at the time.
Lewis's costume was a replica of what he had worn on the Edmund Pettus bridge: a raincoat, a backpack with two books, a brush, and toothpaste.
Aydin, an avowed comic book fan, said Lewis quickly got into the Comic-Con spirit, even though he didn't know all of the characters.
- "Who is that?" Aydin asked as an assistant passed by with abundant sideburns and knives in his hands.
- "Sir, that's Wolverine."
-And that?
- “Is that the incredible Hulk?
At the Comic-Con panel something unexpected happened.
A group of elementary school students, from different backgrounds, came to listen to Lewis.
After the talk, Lewis decided to join them and organize an impromptu march down the hall.
By the time they reached the exhibition area, Lewis was leading a line of about 1,000 protesters.
Some onlookers were on the verge of tears when they saw it pass.
The graphic novel had made Lewis known to another generation.
"I was walking the corridors and the seas just parted," Aydin said.
"It seemed like it was the first time people had seen a real hero."
He crossed the hall to hug a rival
The public persona of some civil rights leaders did not match the way they acted behind the scenes when few were watching.
Some were famous for their egos, pettiness and their degrading treatment of women.
However, none of those remarks came up when people talked about Lewis.
"We call him the 'Martin Luther King De Lawd.'
"We call Lewis the 'Saint,'" says Rubin.
"John Lewis was John Lewis in all circumstances."
Many of Lewis's political enemies also spoke highly of him.
When Johnny Isakson, the Republican senator from Georgia, was honored in November 2019 before his retirement, Lewis paid him an emotional tribute in the plenary session of the House.
When he finished speaking, Lewis said, "I'll go see you, bro."
He cautiously turned to Isakson, who was dealing with some health issues, the two hugged.
"I wish the entire United States was here to see this," State Representative Austin Scott said later.
When George Wallace's daughter made him cry
Lewis had another delicate hug for the daughter of one of his staunch enemies: George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama.
When Peggy Wallace Kennedy was invited to Selma in 2009 to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge with civil rights leaders, she was alone in a room while other dignitaries chatted.
Lewis approached her.
"He saw this person who was nervous and seemed unsteady, came over and said, 'I'm from Pike County," she told CNN.
As civil rights leaders rose for the memorial march, Lewis told Kennedy, "Well, sister, it's time to move."
Lewis held her hand at all times.
Several years later, when she returned to Alabama to speak at another commemorative civil rights event, Lewis was on stage with her.
Near the end of his speech, he turned to Lewis and recalled that Lewis had not been recognized by his late father when he was Governor of Alabama.
“But today as your daughter, and in a personal capacity, I want to do for you what my father should have done: recognize you for your humanity and dignity, as a child of God, as a person of good will and character and as a companion from Alabama and say: welcome to home".
Lewis got up, walked over to her, and took her hands.
- "Why do you always make me cry?", She assures that Lewis told her.
- "Brother, it is not my intention."
- "But, sister, you always do."
Years later, the emotion in Kennedy's voice is still evident from that encounter.
She recently wrote about Lewis in her memoir "The Broken Road."
"He doesn't have an unlovable bone in his body," he says today.
On his chest he had the scars of many battles
Lewis may not have been the most eloquent or physically imposing leader, but he earned respect for something else: toughness.
People remember how he seemed to come to every civil rights meeting with bandages on his head because he was beaten a lot.
"People think of Lewis as cute and all, I say I'd like to see how many of those would be brave enough to deal with the pervasiveness of segregation and stand up to it and stand in front of it when it means getting their butt kicked." says Courtland Cox, one of the leaders of the SNCC.
Lewis literally wore the blows on his chest.
Every time a SNCC worker participated in a campaign, they received pins or badges.
They were like battle tapes for soldiers, says Cleveland Sellers, another SNCC colleague.
Lewis had more than anyone else, Sellers said.
“People who had done something or had shown that they were brave and willing to compromise, got the badges,” adds Sellers.
"People knew who Lewis was, people respected his story."
Lewis's reputation for taking risks was so well known that some of his friends couldn't imagine a future for him, says Bernard Lafayette, a roommate of Lewis's college and a colleague in the protest movement.
"I am surprised that he survived."
He once asked Barack Obama for an autograph
Lewis had the opportunity to see one of his deepest wishes fulfilled when the United States elected its first black president in 2008.
According to journalist David Remnick of The New Yorker, Lewis told a visitor to his House office the day before President Obama took office in January 2009: “Barack Obama is what comes to the fore. end of that bridge in Selma ”.
At a luncheon after the swearing-in ceremony, Lewis approached Obama with a commemorative photo and asked for an autograph.
Obama wrote: “It's because of you, John.
Barack Obama".
6 years later, the two men held hands as they marched through Selma to mark the 50th anniversary of that bloody moment in history.
Maybe it's the last of its kind
Lewis will no longer preach to his chickens.
And he never became the preacher he intended.
But it did become a bridge to optimism in a less partisan era.
He is that rare conciliatory political figure who inspires respect between the left and the right, someone who can call his political enemies "brother" without practically anyone questioning whether he means it.
Yet here's an idea that's almost as unsettling as watching Lewis leave the national stage: He may be the last such figure we ever see.
CNN en Español presents the special
John Lewis: Good Problems
this Sunday, September 27 at 9 p.m. (Miami time).
John lewis