‘Wall of Moms Michigan’ event celebrates the life of John Lewis

DETROIT - The late Congressman John Lewis was not moved, never swayed, or dissuaded from pursuing his passion for justice. 

“Sometimes we have different views, but we go forth, if we just do half of what John Lewis did, God I think we would make a big impact,” said the Vice President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Detroit, Benny Scott.   

  
Lewis, who died in July at the age of 80, was one of the original Freedom Riders, challenging segregation on busses in the 1960’s.

Lewis is immortalized by the “Bloody Sunday” attack he and others endured, when he marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama while pushing for greater access to the ballot box. Lewis and others were brutally beaten by state troopers. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was the result.  

“Government-sanctioned terror had the power to turn a simple stroll to the store for some Skittles or an innocent morning jog down a lonesome country road into a nightmare,” Lewis wrote in a New York Times Opinion pieces. 

Lewis’s words were published after his death and were read out loud Sunday at the “Wall of Moms Michigan,” event downtown.

Protests in Portland Oregon, which began as a stand against police brutality, have taken a turn… at times they’ve turned violent. The Trump Administration sent federal agents into the city and demonstrators evolved their message to also condemn the influx of federal police. The Detroit demonstration was partly inspired by peaceful protesters in Oregon.