NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Congressman John Lewis, returning to the city where he launched a life of protest, said demonstrators objecting to the election of Donald Trump are justified in raising their voices.
But those protesters should be peaceful and remain optimistic, the iconic civil rights leader said on a visit to Nashville, where as a college student in the 1960s he helped desegregate lunch counters and movie theaters.
“I would say to the young people, the young protesters, and those not so young: Accept a way of peace, believe in the way of love, believe in the philosophy and the discipline of nonviolence,” Lewis told The Associated Press. “Never become bitter. Never become angry. And do whatever you can to speak truth to power, and be hopeful, be optimistic.
“The struggle is not a struggle that lasts one day or a few weeks or a few years. It is a struggle of a lifetime.”
Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, made the remarks during an interview in Nashville, where he was arrested, beaten and jailed more than half a century ago. He’s receiving the Nashville Public Library Literary Award this weekend. He recently published “March,” a three-part graphic novel about his life in the civil rights movement.