'There are those in power who're doing their darndest to discourage people from voting': Obama excoriates Trump and compares him to George Wallace during eulogy to John Lewis and calls for new Voting Rights Act 'to truly honor' civil rights icon
Barack Obama has excoriated President Trump and his administration during his fiery eulogy for the late John Lewis by calling out efforts to stifle voting and slamming the use of tear gas on peaceful protesters by federal agents.
Speaking in front of the American flag-draped casket bearing Lewis' body at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Thursday, Obama said the late civil rights activist had dedicated his life to 'fighting the very attacks on democracy' that 'we're seeing circulate right now.'
Refusing to mention Trump by name, Obama said the electoral system was currently under attack by Republicans trying to suppress the minority vote and Trump's repeated attacks on mail-in voting.
'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 darnedest 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 people don't get sick,' he said, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He called on Congress to act on voting rights and restore the Voting Rights Act, which the Supreme Court diminished in 2012, saying: 'You want to honor John? Let's honor him by revitalizing the law he was willing to die for.
'The John Lewis Voting Rights Act, that is a fine tribute. But John wouldn't want us to stop there. Once we pass it, we should keep marching to make it even better.'
Obama called the procedural hurdle that effectively requires 60 votes to pass major legislation a 'Jim Crow relic', referring to the segregation era.
He went to say that all Americans should be automatically registered to vote, including inmates, and declared that election day should be a national holiday to ensure everyone can get to a polling place.
His criticisms came just hours after Trump suggested delaying the 2020 election over claims of 'mail-in fraud' - a power he does not have.
Speaking in front of the American flag-draped casket bearing John Lewis' body at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Thursday, Former President Barack Obama said he owed a great debt to his 'mentor' Lewis and his forceful vision of freedom
Obama said Lewis will be a 'founding father of a fuller, better, fairer America' as he delivered a stirring eulogy for the civil rights icon and longtime Congressman
During his 41-minute eulogy, Obama also compared Trump to former Alabama Gov. George Wallace - who infamously said in the 60s 'segregation now, segregation forever' - and staunch 60s segregationist Bull Connor as he slammed the government for recent scenes in which federal agents have tear gassed protesters.
'Bull Conner may be gone, but today, we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of black Americans,' he said. 'George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators.'
Lewis died on July 17 at age 80 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. His funeral on Thursday caps a week of services and tributes to the civil rights icon
Trump used troops to clear protesters from Lafayette Square outside the White House and sent federal agents recently into Portland, Oregon.
'I know this is a celebration of John's life. There are some who might say we shouldn't dwell on such things. But that's why I'm talking about it. John Lewis devoted his time on this Earth fighting the very attacks on democracy and what's best in America that we're seeing circulate right now,' Obama said.
Obama, who awarded Lewis the Medal of Freedom in 2011, said he owed a great debt to his 'mentor' and his forceful vision of freedom and that Lewis would be a 'founding father of a fuller, better, fairer America'.
He said Lewis was an American whose faith had been tested 'again and again to produce a man of pure joy and unbreakable perseverance'.
'Americans like John... liberated all of us. America was built by people like them. America was built by the John Lewises,' Obama said.
'He as much as anyone brought this country closer to our highest ideals. And someday when we do finish that long journey toward freedom, whether it's years from now or decades, or even if it takes another two centuries, John Lewis will be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better America.'
Speaking of Lewis' fight for civil rights, Obama said Americans needed to be vigilant against 'darker currents of this country's history'.
'This country is a constant work in progress,' he said. 'We're born with instructions to form a more perfect union.
'Explicit in those words is the idea that we're imperfect. What gives each new generation purpose is to take up the unfinished work of the last generation and carry it further than any might have thought possible.'
Someday when we do finish that long journey toward freedom, whether it's years from now or decades, or even if it takes another two centuries, John Lewis will be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better America.
Barack Obama
Referencing Lewis' lengthy history as a civil rights activist, Obama said he kept getting on buses and sitting at lunch counters, getting arrested and marching 'on a mission to change America'.
He referenced one moment when Lewis and Bernard Lafayette got on a bus and refused to change seats when he was just 20 years old.
'Imagine the courage of two people Malia's age - younger than my oldest daughter. On their own. To challenge an entire infrastructure of oppression. John was only 20 years old. But he pushed all 20 of those years to the center of the table, betting everything, all of it, that his example could challenge centuries of convention and generations of brutal violence and countless daily indignities suffered by African Americans.
'Until his final day on this Earth, he not only embraced that responsibility but he made it his life's work.
'The life of John Lewis was, in so many ways, exceptional.... And yet, as exceptional as John was, here's the thing: John never believed that what he did was more than any citizen of this country can do.
'If we want our children to grow up in a democracy, not just with elections, but a true democracy, a representative democracy, and a big-hearted tolerant, vibrant, inclusive America of perpetual self-creation, then we're going to have to be more like John. We don't have to do all the things he had to do because he did them for us. But we got to do something.'
Lewis' casket, which was draped in a US flag, arrived at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Thursday morning ahead of his funeral service
Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton eulogized John Lewis during his funeral service in Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday, capping a week of memorial services and tributes to the civil rights pioneer.
Former President Barack Obama is scheduled to give the eulogy for Lewis who died on July 17 at age 80 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are also slated to speak
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is seated for the funeral service of John Lewis on Thursday
Sen. Kamala Harris (left), Stacey Abrams (center) and Sen. Cory Booker were among the mourners
People watch outside of Ebenezer Baptist Church as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi addresses the memorial service of late Congressman John Lewis in Atlanta
Mourners lined the streets following the ceremony as the hearse carrying Lewis' casket traveled from Ebenezer Baptist Church to a nearby cemetery for burial
Following the memorial service, close friends and family father at South-View Cemetery for Lewis' burial
Earlier President George W. Bush, who attended with wife Laura, told mourners at that Americans live in a 'better and nobler country today' because of him, while Bill Clinton urged the US to follow in the civil rights icon's footsteps.
Politicians, dignitaries and other mourners filed into the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Thursday to honor the life and legacy of the longtime Congressman.
Both Bush and Clinton both spoke of Lewis' humble beginnings on a farm in Troy, Alabama, to becoming a leader of the civil rights movement and ultimately the man known as the 'conscience of Congress'.
Bush was the first of the three presidents to speak of Lewis, telling mourners: 'John and I had our disagreements but in the America John Lewis fought for and the America I believe in, differences in opinion are inevitable elements and evidence of democracy in action.
We the people, including Congressman and Presidents, can have differing views on how to perfect our union while sharing the conviction that our nation, however flawed, is a good and noble one. We live in a better and nobler country today because of John Lewis.
George W. Bush
'We the people, including Congressman and Presidents, can have differing views on how to perfect our union while sharing the conviction that our nation, however flawed, is a good and noble one.
'We live in a better and nobler country today because of John Lewis and his abiding faith in the power of God, the power of democracy and in the power of love to lift us all to a higher ground.'
Describing Lewis' character, Bush said: 'He always thought of others; he always thought of preaching the gospel, in word and in deed, insisting that hate and fear had to be answered with love and hope. John Lewis believed in the Lord, he believed in humanity and he believed in America.'
Former President Bill Clinton praised Lewis' civil rights efforts of the decades, saying he had an 'uncanny ability to heal troubled waters'.
'John Lewis was a walking rebuke to people who thought, 'Well we ain't there yet, we've been working a long time, isn't it time to bag it?' He kept moving. He hoped for, and imagined, and lived and worked and moved for his beloved community,' Clinton said.
'He got into a lot of good trouble along the way, but let's not forget he also developed an absolutely uncanny ability to heal troubled waters. When he could have been angry and determined to cancel his adversaries, he tried to get converts instead. He thought the open hand was better than the clenched fist.
'It is so fitting on the day of his service, he leaves us our marching orders - keep moving,' Clinton added, referencing Lewis' final words that were published posthumously in the New York Times on Thursday.
'I just loved him. I always will, and I'm so grateful that he stayed true to form: He's gone off yonder and left us with marching orders,' Clinton said. 'I suggest... since he's close enough to God to keep his eyes on the sparrow and us... we salute, suit up, and march on.'
Former President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush were among the mourners at the funeral service on Thursday
Former President Bill Clinton clapped along with other mourners as they celebrated Lewis' life on Thursday. His wife Hillary Clinton was absent from the funeral
The casket was placed at the front of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Thursday ahead of his funeral service
Family members arrive for the service of late Senator and Civil Rights leader John Lewis
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also spoke, recalling how Lewis' body was lying in state at the US Capitol earlier this week, and a double rainbow appeared.
'There was this double rainbow over the casket,' she said. 'He was telling us, 'I'm home in heaven, I'm home in heaven.' We always knew he worked on the side of angels, and now he is with them.'
She went on to say Lewis bought his experience fighting for civil rights to Washington.
'He insisted on the truth in the Congress of the United States,' she said. 'When John Lewis served with us, he wanted us to see the civil rights movement and the rest through his eyes.'
'He wanted us to see how important it was, how important it was to understand the spirit of nonviolence.'
President Trump, who did not visit the late Congressman's body as it lied in state this week, did not attend the funeral.
Before the funeral began, the church bells rang 80 times to signify the number of years Lewis was alive.
Hillary Clinton did not attend. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Sen. Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams and Sen. Cory Booker were among the mourners.
More than an hour before the service was scheduled to begin, dozens of people had already gathered outside the church with many sitting in lawn chairs in front of a large screen just outside waiting to watch the service.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and her husband Derek were among those in attendance during Lewis' funeral service
Members of Congress socially distanced from each other during the funeral service and all wore masks
Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, left, speaks with State Sen. Nikema Williams ahead of the funeral service
His funeral followed a week of memorial services. The coffin bearing his body was escorted across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on Sunday, decades after his 'Bloody Sunday' beating there drew a national spotlight to the struggle for racial equality. On Monday, his casket was taken to the US Capitol in Washington where it lay in state through Tuesday.
He spent more than three decades in Congress and his district included most of Atlanta.
The funeral came on the same day The New York Time published an essay written by Lewis two days before his death.
He wrote that he was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and that protesters had filled him with hope for the future in the final hours of his life.
'When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war,' Lewis wrote.
'So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.'
He also recalled the teachings of King: 'He said we are all complicit when we tolerate injustice,' Lewis wrote. 'He said it is not enough to say it will get better by and by. He said each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out.
'Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe,' Lewis added. 'In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.'
The arc of Lewis' legacy of activism will once again be tied to Ebenezer's former pastor Martin Luther King Jr., whose sermons Lewis discovered while scanning the radio dial as a 15-year-old boy growing up in then-segregated Alabama.
King continued to inspire Lewis' civil rights work for the next 65 years as he fought segregation during sometimes bloody marches, Greyhound bus 'Freedom Rides' across the South and later during his long tenure in the U.S. Congress.
When Lewis was 15, he had heard King's sermons on WRMA, a radio station in Montgomery, Alabama, he recalled in an interview for the Southern Oral History Program.
'Later I saw him on many occasions in Nashville while I was in school between 1958 and ´61,' Lewis said. 'In a sense, he was my leader.'
King was 'the person who, more than any other, continued to influence my life, who made me who I was,' Lewis wrote in his 1998 autobiography 'Walking with the Wind.'
By the summer of 1963, Lewis was addressing thousands of people during the March on Washington, speaking shortly before King gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech. He spoke then about black people beaten by police and jailed - themes that resonate vividly in today's times.
'My friends, let us not forget that we are involved in a serious social revolution,' Lewis told the huge crowd on the Washington Mall.
'To those who have said, 'Be patient and wait', we have long said that we cannot be patient,' he added. 'We do not want our freedom gradually, but we want to be free now! We are tired. We are tired of being beaten by policemen. We are tired of seeing our people locked up in jail over and over again.'
In 1965, Lewis was beaten by Alabama state troopers in the city of Selma in what became known as 'Bloody Sunday.'
The Honor Guard is pictured carrying Lewis' casket following his memorial at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta
The casket of late U.S. Congressman John Lewis is placed at his burial site inside the South View Cemetery following the memorial service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Thursday
The Honor Guard carries the casket to it's final resting place during the burial service
The Honor Gold is seen folding the American flag which was draped across Lewis' coffin
The flag was folded by the military honor guard before white roses were placed on top of the coffin by family members. The casket was then lowered into the ground
The Honor Guard presents the flag that was on the casket of Congressman Lewis to his son, John-Miles Lew
A military honor guard fires a salute to Lewis near his resting place at South-View Cemetery
Samuel Lewis holds a flower for his brother at the graveside service which followed the rousing memorial at Ebenezer Baptist Church
Family members look on as the Rev. Raphael Warnock says a prayer at the graveside service
Lewis' family laid white roses on top of his casket after the Honor Guard removed the American flag and presented it to his son
Overcome with emotion, family members are seen embracing at the burial site. Despite the soaring temperatures, the family still made sure to keep their face masks on amid the coronavirus pandemic
Lewis' son, John-Miles Lewis, releases a white dove and rose petals following the conclusion of the burial service on Thursday
Family and friends left the casket covered in white roses before it was finally lowered into the ground
'There are those in power who're doing their darndest to discourage people from voting': Obama excoriates Trump and compares him to George Wallace during eulogy to John Lewis and calls for new Voting Rights Act 'to truly honor' civil rights icon
!['There are those in power who're doing their darndest to discourage people from voting': Obama excoriates Trump and compares him to George Wallace during eulogy to John Lewis and calls for new Voting Rights Act 'to truly honor' civil rights icon]()
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