Quote

My parents told me in the very beginning as a young child when I raised the question about segregation and racial discrimination, they told me not to get in the way, not to get in trouble, not to make any noise.

John Lewis

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

John Lewis
Age: 80 †
Born: 1940
Born: February 21
Died: 2020
Died: July 17
Chairperson
Human Rights Activist
Politician
U.S. Representative
Troy
Alabama
John Robert Lewis
Parent
Discrimination
Child
Noise
Young
Raised
Children
Beginning
Way
Parents
Make
Question
Told
Segregation
Trouble
Racial

More quotes by John Lewis

Image
We built a coalition of conscience, and that we can do it again, and we can go forward, and help redeem the soul of America.
John Lewis
Image
We all remember that [Donald] Trump was one of the leaders of the so-called birther movement trying to delegitimize the presidency of our first African-American president Barack Obama, which is an outrage.
John Lewis
Image
You have to have the capacity and the ability to take what people did, and how they did it, and forgive them and move on.
John Lewis
Image
If we must grind up human flesh and bones in the industrial machine that we call modern America, then, before God, I assert that those who consume the coal and you and I who benefit from that service, because we live in comfort, we owe protection to those men first and we owe security for their families if they die.
John Lewis
Image
I think, in fact, I think President [Barack] Obama could step up.
John Lewis
Image
Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.
John Lewis
Image
I believe that teachers - whether in elementary schools, at the secondary level, or at colleges and universities - every teacher deserves the Nobel Peace Prize just for maintaining order in our schools!
John Lewis
Image
The reward for playing jazz is playing jazz.
John Lewis
Image
Medgar Evers was assassinated in his driveway retuning from an NAACP meeting in downtown Jackson. And then you go back there years later, and the blood is still on the driveway. They cannot wash it away.
John Lewis
Image
I would say to a young person: continue to study. Study what is taking place in your community, in your neighborhood, maybe at your school.
John Lewis
Image
The point is not where Barack Obama was born, the point is is that we've got congressmen on the Democratic side of the aisle that are questioning the legitimacy of President-elect [Donald] Trump who won in an electoral landslide.
John Lewis
Image
Be prepared to organize nonviolent workshops - a teach-in around what is happening in America today. Organize your teachers and schoolmates, and be prepared to engage in some action.
John Lewis
Image
I say to people today, 'You must be prepared if you believe in something. If you believe in something, you have to go for it. As individuals, we may not live to see the end.
John Lewis
Image
The events in Prague, together with the Berlin blockade, convinced the European recipients of American economic assistance that they needed military protection as well: that led them to request the creation of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which committed the United States for the first time ever to the peacetime defense of Western Europe.
John Lewis
Image
It is our hope that when people read March - Book One, Book Two, and Book Three - that they will understand that another generation of people, especially young people, were deeply inspired by the work of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and many others.
John Lewis
Image
Our struggle is a struggle to redeem the soul of America. It's not a struggle that lasts for a few days, a few weeks, a few months, or a few years. It is the struggle of a lifetime, more than one lifetime.
John Lewis
Image
That's where the outrage should be, not old news, but the fact that we are preparing for the transfer of power. and we have been working with President [Barack] Obama, hand in glove, and I think that they - including the president - should step up and get his people in line and tell them to grow up and accept the fact that they lost the election.
John Lewis
Image
I think all Americans should be hopeful, and try to be optimistic.
John Lewis
Image
I think right now, the focus has got to be on how we hold [Donald] Trump accountable.
John Lewis
Image
But you have to have hope. You have to be optimistic in order to continue to move forward.
John Lewis