He took the civil rights fight from the streets to Congress. Today, John Lewis's legacy is more relevant than ever, as explored in the documentary "John Lewis: Good Trouble."
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00:00Just as John Lewis looked to the activists that came before him for inspiration,
00:08I hope that Black Lives Matter activists look to John Lewis and his contemporaries for inspiration.
00:16I hope many more young Black men will be murdered.
00:25That the madness must stop.
00:30One of the things that I think resonates so deeply with him is the mass protest,
00:57the showing up day in and day out and refusing to take no for an answer, like insisting on being heard.
01:16Tulsa, Oklahoma was a thriving Black community where Blacks had a lot of economic advancement.
01:24It was known as the Black Wall Street.
01:27And there was a false allegation against a Black man of, you know, rape of a white woman.
01:34Very typical false allegation that led to massive looting, rioting, and violence and completely destroyed.
01:46I mean, when you see the pictures of Tulsa, imagine a thriving Black community completely obliterated.
01:52So for Trump to say that he's holding a rally on the day that slavery ended on the site of a massive, you know,
02:03looting and rioting and leveling of a Black community is incredibly offensive.
02:08I think people who are progressive and who believe in equality for all people, you know,
02:14we wanted to do something that would recognize that America, because that is the America that we believe in.
02:20And so what is more American than programming a film about John Lewis on that sacred day, on that sacred site?
02:50We were beaten, tear gassed.
03:03Some of us was left bloody right here on this bridge.
03:08Seventeen of us were hospitalized that day.
03:12But we never became bitter or hostile.
03:15We kept believing that the truth we stood for would have the following say.
03:21Symbols matter. And the idea that that bridge is named for a segregationist is named for a person who believed in inequality.
03:31It's time to address those symbols. That bridge is synonymous with the action that Mr.
03:37Lewis took and the other civil rights workers.
03:41And I think that it would be a forever reminder of what happened on that bridge.
03:48You know, President Obama on the 50th anniversary of the Selma March said, what could be more American than what happened on this bridge?
03:56And by that he meant young people, Black and white, standing up for their rights and saying America is a place for all.
04:06So I know Mr. Lewis is incredibly excited about even the possibility of renaming that bridge.
04:13And I very much hope for not only his sake, but for all of our sake, that that is something that actually happens.