John Lewis talks to St. Petersburg

photo by Jonah King, John Lewis and Charlie Crist preparing to talk to the crowd

Lewis speaks on the importance of voting, optimism in the face of fear, and endorses Charlie Crist

photo by Jonah King, John Lewis and Charlie Crist preparing to talk to the crowd
photo by Jonah King, John Lewis and Charlie Crist preparing to talk to the crowd

BY JONAH KING
Neighborhood News Bureau

Civil rights is a 9-word problem: “Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, I Have a Dream.”

Those nine words are the universal American understanding of the civil rights movement of the 1960’s.

Another two words you may want to add to the list are John Lewis. You’ve still only breached the surface, but Lewis’s experiences and perspective speak volumes to the cold dark realities of racism and the peaceful combat against it in the civil rights era.

Lewis is a proponent of getting in trouble, something we were told as kids by our parents not to get in. But the trouble Lewis is talking about he refers to as good trouble, the same sort of trouble that got him arrested during the sit-ins and the march on Selma.

At the event hosted by the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, Lewis and Crist spoke on the state of the election, expressed their political views, and Lewis reflected on the Civil Rights era. Lewis also gave a ringing endorsement for Charlie Crist’s House bid. Crist won the seat defeating incumbent Republican David Jolly.

Lewis and Crist talk Civil Rights and Voting

Lewis talks Trump and the 2016 Election

Lewis talks March

Lewis talks Voter Turnout