Footage showing the public denying Lewis, the civil rights organizer who worked closely with with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, surfaced on the Web and has since become viral.

Lewis seemed the least perturbed by the incident and said he just wanted to support the group. He is seen respectfully leaving the protest after they denied him a chance to speak.

Read more at the new York Daily News.

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Obama Honors Presidential Medal Of Freedom Recipients

Obama Honors Civil Rights Legend Rev. Lowery On 90th Birthday

President Barack Obama will present the awards to the 15 honorees early next year.

Other winners include a civil rights hero, Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, plus St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan Musial, Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell, German Chancellor Angela Merkel (AHN’-geh-lah MEHR’-kuhl) and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

The White House made the announcement Wednesday.

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From The Huffington Post

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and the white man who attacked him during a civil rights protest in 1961 came together to accept an award Thursday night.

Lewis and Elwin Wilson received the Common Ground award Thursday at the Canadian Embassy in Washington. The award honors outstanding accomplishments in conflict resolution, negotiation, community building, and peacebuilding.

Read The Whole Story

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John Lewis Arrested For Protesting Genocide in Darfur

Ex-KKK Member Apologizes To John Lewis

From BlackAmericaWeb

Congress continued its efforts to recognize the government’s role in African-American slavery as the House of Representatives passed a resolution Tuesday that acknowledges the use of slave labor in the construction of the U.S. Capitol.

The concurrent resolution sponsored by Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., passed on a 399 to 1 vote. Rep. Steve King, a Republican from Iowa, cast the lone no vote. The marker’s fate now rests with the Senate, where lawmakers will consider a similar measure to Lewis’ that’s sponsored by Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.

Lewis, a civil rights icon, said the time for honoring those who involuntarily toiled in building the Capitol building and the White House was long overdue.

“Mr. Speaker, for too long the (story of the) use of slave labor in the construction of the United States Capitol has gone untold,” Lewis said on the House floor prior to the vote. “We look back today, not to open old wounds, but to ensure that we tell the story of those slaves, so their toils are never forgotten. Slavery is part of our nation’s history of which we are not proud. However, we should not run or hide from it.”

Lewis’ resolution directs the Architect of the Capitol to place a marker, made from original sandstone quarried by the slaves for the Capitol’s construction, in a highly visible place in the $621 Million Capitol Visitor’s Center’s Emancipation Hall. The stones were removed from the building during renovation and have been kept in storage.

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Five members of Congress and two Darfur activists had themselves arrested Monday outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C., to draw attention to the continuing humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Uniformed Secret Service officers put plastic handcuffs on Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), John Lewis (D-Ga.), Donna Edwards (D-Md.), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), and Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), along with Save Darfur Coalition president Jerry Fowler and Enough Project co-founder John Prendergast after the group stepped behind yellow police tape in front of the embassy.

Read the Whole Story

Top 10 Black Politicians

Check Out a Gallery of Obama’s First 100 Days

Former Klansman Elwin Wilson apologized for beating Congressman,  John Lewis and a group of black college students who  were attacked by an angry white mob at a Rock Hill, S.C. bus depot.

Watch the Video

Last night in the debate, McCain asked Obama to repudiate John Lewis’s comparison of McCain to Geroge Wallace. This is funny coming from a man who’s surrogates and campaign managers actively compare Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden. What McCain didn’t get and that Obama pointed out is that Lewis was not trying to insinuate that McCain was implementing Wallace’s segregationist policies but was utilizing the same tactics of fear and hatred.

Watch Obama Defend John Lewis Statement

Last August John McCain was asked by Pastor Rick Warren to name three people that he would confide in if he was president. The 3 people he named were former Ebay CEO, Meg Whitman, General Petraeus , and Civil Rights hero, John Lewis. Monday John McCain told CNN that John Lewis recent remarks were so disturbing that they stopped me in my tracks.

When contacted about McCain’s newfound admiration, Lewis replied that while he had worked with McCain for over 20 years, he had never confided in him. It is hard not to be cynical and believe that McCain had truly admired Lewis and wasn’t pandering to show he wasn’t a racist, but let’s believe what he said at face value.  If he truly admired Lewis for his Civil Rights work, he would take into consideration Lewis’s statement that his rallies are ‘Sowing the seeds of hatred and division’ and that he needed to control the hostility of his crowds.

Rather than taking into account John Lewis criticism. McCain’s campaign has chosen to attack John Lewis as a Barack Obama supporter.

“Congressman John Lewis’ comments represent a character attack against Governor Sarah Palin and me that is shocking and beyond the pale. The notion that legitimate criticism of Senator Obama’s record and positions could be compared to Governor George Wallace, his segregationist policies and the violence he provoked is unacceptable and has no place in this campaign. I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I’ve always admired, would make such a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hardworking Americans who come to our events to cheer for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track.

“I call on Senator Obama to immediately and personally repudiate these outrageous and divisive comments that are so clearly designed to shut down debate 24 days before the election. Our country must return to the important debate about the path forward for America.”

Later McCain Would Tell CNN

“I say when anybody says anything like that that is so beyond the pale, that it stuns me, because that’s not what America and this debate should be all about, I will reject that kind of language, and again, I’m so disappointed in Congressman John Lewis.”

McCain called on the Obama campaign to denounce Lewis statements. The Obama camp responded.

“Obama does not believe that John McCain or any policy criticism is in any way comparable to George Wallace or his segregationist policies but that he was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric.”

Watch McCain Address Lewis on CNN

Lewis was not condemning hardworking Americans who came to cheer but the ones who yelled ‘terrorist, traitor, socialist,  treason, off with his head and killem.’ When Palin accuses Obama of ‘Pallin around with the terrorists,’ where’s the criticism of his record and positions? When the announcer before the rallies emphasizes Obama’s middle name to connect him to Saddam Hussein where’s the legitimate criticism of his policies? When people shout from the crowd ‘kill him’ or off with his head, are they really just cheering?

There are several similarities between Wallace’s campaign and McCain’s. Both have tried to link their opponents with enemies of America. Just as Palin has accused Obama of ‘Pallin around with the terrorists,’ Wallace would accuse Kennedy of wanting to ‘surrender this state to Martin Luther King and his group of pro-Communists who have instituted these demonstrations’  While McCain rails against activist judges, the liberal media, socialists, intellectuals and elitists, Wallace would rail against ‘liberals, Communists, the Eastern press, Federal judges, ”pointy-headed intellectuals.’

Wallace would make it a point to make sure his crowds were fearful of  integration and what ‘foreign,’ ‘different’ African Americans would do to the white way of life. Just as McCain makes it a point that the crowds are fearful of what an exotic, un-American Obama would do for this country.

What McCain doesn’t get, is that Lewis was not comparing McCain to Wallace’s ‘segregationist policies,’ but to his tactics of hate, fear and alienation. McCain has shown a good grasp of crowd control. Most of his ‘town-hall meetings’ are stacked with supporters. When asked by a reverend at a town hall meeting if he had ever called his a wife a cunt, McCain angrily stated ‘We don’t use that kind of language here.’ So McCain has some control of the language used by supporters at his events.

How come he can’t tell his crowd to chill out. The other day McCain responded to a question in which a man referred to Obama as a hooligan and as a socialist and said ‘You’re right.’ McCain had a woman removed from a town hall meeting for having a sign that said ‘McCain=Bush,’ but he lets in a man proudly displaying his Obama monkey and a man whose sign says ‘Obama Bin Lyin.’

When all of McCain’s ads are negative and they all paint Obama as a an unknown, foreign figure to be feared and brings up allegations of him being connected to terrorism, he is creating an atmosphere of fear, division and hatred. This is compounded with right wing talk radio, which is constantly using Obama’s middle name or calling him Osama, and trying to connect him to 60’s radicals and arabs right wing newspapers and blogs.

I am not accusing John McCain of racism. I am accusing McCain of trying to use racism, fear and hatred for his own political gain. George Wallace was not a racist at first. When he first ran for Governor of Alabama, he was endorsed by the NAACP. After he was beat by an opponent who used racist hatred and was supported by the KKK he said, “Seymore, you know why I lost that governor’s race?… I was outniggered by John Patterson. And I’ll tell you here and now, I will never be outniggered again.”

When asked why he started using racist messages, Wallace said ‘You know, I tried to talk about good roads and good schools and all these things that have been part of my career, and nobody listened. And then I began talking about niggers, and they stomped the floor.’

In this way McCain can be directly tied to Wallace. After he has failed to invoke any passion out of his supporters by talking about his policies, McCain has finally managed to get some enthusiasm out of his supporters by turning to negativity and demonization of Obama.

Just as the racist opponents of Martin Luther King and his agenda attempted to portray him as Russian connected communist. McCain’s camp have tried to paint Obama as a foreign, un-American man with terrorist affiliations. McCain’s Virginia spokesman tried to connect Obama to bin Laden saying  ‘Both Barack Obama and Bin Laden have had friends who’ve bombed the pentagon. Isn’t that scary?’ McCain would not disown or condemn those statements.

The smearing of Obama is bigger than the McCain camp. It comes from right wing newspapers, FOX News, right wing  blogs and talk radio. If McCain wants Obama to condemn Lewis for what I believe is a legitimate criticism of McCain’s supporters, McCain should condemn every right wing radio show, blog or newspaper that smears Obama. While there are several difference between Wallace’s political campaigns and McCain’s, at the core they both are driven by negativity, fear of something different, and division.

Republican candidate John McCain on Saturday called Lewis’ remarks ”shocking and beyond the pale.”

The Obama campaign said the Illinois senator doesn’t believe McCain or his policy criticism is at all comparable to Wallace and his segregationist policies.

In a statement issued Saturday, Lewis said McCain and running mate Sarah Palin were ”sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.” He noted that Wallace also ran for president.

”George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights,” said Lewis, who is black. ”Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.”

One of the seminal events of the civil rights movement was the bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church on Sept. 15, 1963. Four black girls died in the blast, which was linked to a Ku Klux Klan group.

Late Saturday, Lewis released another statement saying it was not his ”intention or desire” to directly compare McCain or Palin to Wallace.

”My statement was a reminder to all Americans that toxic language can lead to destructive behavior,” he said. ”I am glad that Sen. McCain has taken some steps to correct divisive speech at his rallies. I believe we need to return to civil discourse in this election about the pressing economic issues that are affecting our nation.”

Lewis’ comments follow widely reported examples of anger at McCain rallies that has been aimed at Obama, the first black man to be a major party’s nominee for president. During some rallies featuring McCain and Palin, supporters have shouted ”traitor,” ”terrorist,” ”treason,” ”liar” and even ”off with his head.”

The outbursts came amid a harshly personal line of attack against Obama by the GOP campaign. McCain and Palin have said Obama failed to tell the truth about his ties to 1960s radical William Ayers, had a radical agenda on abortion, and wasn’t really known to voters. Last weekend, Palin signaled the uptick in the criticism when she charged that Obama was ”palling around with terrorists,” a reference to Ayers, and that he didn’t see the U.S. as others did.

McCain drew boos at a town-hall meeting Friday in Minnesota when he defended Obama after a supporter said he feared what would happen if Obama were elected president. He also cut short a woman who said Obama was an Arab, and he called his rival ”a decent, family man.”

On Saturday, McCain called on Obama to repudiate Lewis’ remarks. While dismissing the comparison to Wallace, Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said Lewis was on target in other ways.

”John Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked just last night, as well as the baseless and profoundly irresponsible charges from his own running mate that the Democratic nominee for president of the United States ‘pals around with terrorists,”’ Burton said in a statement.

In his remarks, Lewis also said: ”As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all. They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better.”

McCain rejected any comparison to Wallace.

”I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I’ve always admired, would make such a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hardworking Americans who come to our events to cheer for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track,” McCain said.

In August, while appearing at a forum on faith, McCain was asked to name three ”wise people” he would listen to. He cited Lewis as well as Gen. David Petreaus, head of U.S. troops in Iraq, and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, a top adviser to his campaign.

It is interesting that McCain picked a woman and black person considering all of his advisors are old white males, mostly lobbyists. Wouldn’t he want the same people advising him on his campaign to advise him on what to do when his president?

McCain does not have one black advisor and the one woman he had consulting him was a lobbyist he was accused of having an affair with. Meg Whitman’s qualifications for advising McCain, other than running Ebay for ten years, was running the marketing campaign for Hasbro’s, Mr. Potatohead.

Whitman is also known as a philanthropist, and where in her great wisdom did she donate all of her money to, AIDS in Africa? Inner city education? Nope her alma mater Princeton University. Despite her great wisdom,  Whitman was not originally a McCain supporter, she worked for Romney’s campaign.

There is no evidence of McCain previously confiding in Whitman so why would he now? Maybe because she ran a successful internet company and his is widely regarded as an internet illiterate. Or maybe because she’s a woman and he’s had issues with misogynist jokes and women’s rights.

The last person he chose was civil rights icon, John Lewis, a democrat from Georgia. Lewis has been a progressive democrat in congress for 25 years and supports Barack Obama. Despite the fact that McCain put Lewis in his top 3 potential advisors list, Lewis has never been close to McCain despite serving with him in congress for 22 years.

John Lewis told Mother Jones ‘Sen. McCain and I are colleagues in the US congress, not confidantes. He does not consult me and I do not consult him.’ If Lewis was such a wise great man, one of the three people McCain would take advice from, why hasn’t he been consulting with him for the 20 years he’s been in the senate.

Why would McCain invoke the name of a civil rights icon who he isn’t even friends with and disagrees with on most political issues as one of his top 3 advisors. Is he trying to pander to black people? Doubtful, he knows his chances of getting more than 10%(I’d say 5) is slim and none. My guess is he’s trying to not to appear as a racist to the white voters who might feel uncomfortable voting for a bigot.

Still McCain should have at least named a black person who falls in line with his political views, maybe Alan Keyes or Clarence Thomas or at least a black person he’s had a conversation with. Maybe McCain was trying to show some bi-partisan unity by naming a black liberal democrat as someone he would confide in. But shouldn’t he at least make friends with one first?

Maybe McCain named Lewis as an apology for his own gruesome Civil Rights records. Recently, when asked what he’s done for black people he had no answer except for a long pause(had to think real hard.) McCain was one of the few Senators who voted against having a Martin Luther King holiday and continued to oppose the holiday through the nineties.

McCain’s three advisors seem like a calculated political decision, putting a woman and a black with Republican Jesus, General Petraeus . By naming young he reminds me of the famous racist statement ‘Some of my best friends are black.’ If McCain would’ve confided in(or have an actual conversation with) John Lewis he might have realized the how insulting it was for him to vote against the Martin Luther King Day Holiday or to have a black ‘butler figure’ hold up an umbrella for him while he give a speech to black people(you’re not Diddy, McCain, lose the manservant).

Of the three people McCain chose as wisest presidential advisors, Whitman supported Romney over him, he has already been accused of exploiting Petraeus’s name for political gain since military figures are supposed to be apolitical and the other hasn’t had a relationship with him in 22 years in the senate and is supporting Barack Obama. Maybe he ought to listen to their wisdom right now and drop out of the race.

McCain should’ve been honest and said he’d listen to the same corrupt lobbyists who have been guiding his career in the Senate and his campaign rather than a woman he doesn’t know, a general he’s trying to exploit and a black guy who he doesn’t have a relationship with and is supporting the other guy in the race.