Growth of the Movement
By November ’59, Lewis headed small early-SNCC protests. Starting in 1960, the sit-in movement swept America, providing SNCC a platform. Lewis wanted a quick-response protest to support Greensboro, but older adults relented. Rev. Kelly Smith favored holding back due to funding – only $87.50. Lewis disagreed, “We were young, we were ready. We had nothing to lose.” Lewis opposed authority and led SNCC in protest. “We wanted them to see us. We planned each sit-in to begin around lunch-time because we wanted people to be there when we arrived. We wanted white people, everyday citizens, everyday customers, to see us as we were, not as something in their minds. We wanted them to watch how we responded to the people who refused to serve us.” Lewis’s strategy was bold – exposing whites to civil blacks. “There were generational lines within our race – lines that separated the older, conservative blacks from the offspring. We, the younger generation, were saying in effect, we are moving on now. You can be with us and come, or you can stay and be left behind, but we are moving on.” (John Lewis) "Man, you get out."
Thurgood Marshall misunderstood SNCC's refusal to pay bail, as he said, “Once you’ve been arrested, you’ve made your point. If someone offers to get you out, man, you get out.” Lewis respected Marshall but disagreed. "Stakes were going to keep rising."
In Oct. 1960, Lewis was victim of attempted murder but remained unshaken. “The stakes were going to keep rising in the struggle. It was one thing to challenge segregation in a settling like Nashville’s department stores… quite another to face entrenched racism in places we were neither wanted nor needed.” Fazing Lewis -- a man of intense conviction -- was near-impossible. |
" 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) "Elated"
When Lewis was first met with violence and jailed he simply, “felt elated.” Despite the stigma of jail, Lewis knew his decision was just -- he refused conformity. Lewis influenced Dr. Wright, Fisk University president, to become the first to publicly support protests. "Bevel changed that day."
John Lewis convinced Jim Bevel, a later-influential activist, to join SNCC. Bevel was a charismatic, “chicken-eating, liquor-drinking, women-chasing, Baptist preacher,” but Lewis’s arrest drew him to the nonviolent lifestyle. Lewis recounted, “I really think Bevel changed that day. You no longer saw him trying to make it with every woman who walked by. He just seemed more focused after this.” “If some of these white onlookers went back to their own homes, their own jobs, their own churches, and began talking about this in heartfelt terms, about what they had seen, then we had achieved one of our main objectives.” (John Lewis) "We're Gonna March."
Tensions rose by 1961. SNCC debated a potential cool-off period; however, Lewis remained firm. “We’re gonna march,” said Lewis at a meeting. William Campbell fired, “There’s very apt to be some serious violence if there’s another demonstration. You agree with that, and still you say, ‘we’re gonna march.’ What it comes down to, is that this is just a matter of pride with you. This is about your own stubbornness. Your own sin.” Lewis responded, “Okay, I’m a sinner. But, we’re gonna march.” Uninterested in personal attacks, his character was loyal solely to the cause. |