Talk:John Lewis

Notable Addresses

It surely would be a great addition to include references to major speeches that Lewis has made pertaining to his life-long pursuits of civil rights and justice. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.130.44.250 (talk) 00:10, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Inconsistencies on Page

Currently this page says the following:

After leaving SNCC in 1966, he worked with various community-oriented organizations and later became community affairs director for the National Consumer Co-op Bank in Atlanta. His first run for elective office was in a 1977 special election for the 5th District, which resulted when Andrew Young was appointed as ambassador to the United Nations. He lost to Atlanta city councilman Wyche Fowler. In 1981, Lewis himself was elected to the Atlanta City Council. In 1986, Fowler made an ultimately successful run for the United States Senate, Lewis ran in the Democratic primary to succeed Fowler and defeated then-state senator Julian Bond, another national Civil Rights leader. This was tantamount to election in the heavily Democratic 5th District. Lewis was the first African-American to represent Georgia in either house of Congress since Reconstruction. He has been reelected nine times without serious opposition, often with over 70 percent of the vote. He has been unopposed for reelection since 2002.

The above contains inconsistencies such as if Julian Bond held the 5th District seat in 1977, Lewis could not have been the first blah blah... I am therefore correcting this record. (Writers often get into trouble when making claims for the first this or first that. Inevitably, some earlier holder of the title steps forward.) skywriter 22:38, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

My rewriting and editing of this page was for naught as it has been reverted by BlueBoy96, without explanation here or in answer to request for explanation on this and his own Talk page. I object to the reversion because the language is difficult to understand and leaves out the important factual emphasis that Walking With the Wind is a Civil Rights autobiography. I also object because the reversion is needlessly dense and difficult for the reader to understand.

For the record, this is what I contributed to this page but that has now been reverted.

After leaving SNCC in 1966, he worked with community organizations and was then named community affairs director for the National Consumer Co-op Bank in Atlanta.

Lewis first ran for elective office in 1977 when a vacancy occurred in Georgia's 5th District. A special election was called after President Jimmy Carter appointed then Rep. Andrew Young, D-Atlanta, to be ambassador to the United Nations. Lewis lost the race to Wyche Fowler, then a member of the Atlanta City Council. In 1981, Lewis was himself elected to the Atlanta City Council.

In 1986, Fowler ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate. Lewis defeated Julian Bond, also a national Civil Rights leader, in the Democratic primary to succeed Fowler. Winning the primary was tantamount to election in the heavily Democratic 5th District. Lewis has been re-elected nine times without serious opposition, often with over 70 percent of the vote. He was unopposed for re-election in 2002 and 2004.

Since 1991, Lewis has been senior chief deputy whip in the Democratic caucus. He is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc..

Lewis is, according to the Associated Press, "the first major House figure to suggest impeaching George W. Bush," arguing that the president "deliberately, systematically violated the law" in authorizing the National Security Agency to conduct wiretaps without a warrant. Lewis said: "He is not King, he is president."[1]

Skywriter, it didn't say Julian Bond held the 5th district seat or any seat in the U.S. Congress; it says he was in the State (Georgia) Senate. (I didn't revert your changes though.) --63.150.149.226 04:46, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Civil Rights Biography

• Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by John Lewis with Michael D'Orso, 1999)

I would like to have participated in this project but this reversion to difficult to understand language, without explanation either in the Talk page or the Edit Summary means that unless one has time and inclination to engage in an editing war on what should be a routine matter, it was time wasted to have spent doing it in the first place. The action of this reversion discourages me from contributing to the congressional project. skywriter 18:19, 28 February 2006 (UTC) I also would have liked to have participated in this article. How can the writer not have known that John Lewis was one of the "Freedom Riders" an action that took place before his more well known SNCC activities. This was his true baptism into civil rights activism.Oldpanther 01:23, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

Howard Zinn

4 entire paragraphs of this article are quoted from Howard Zinn. Would anyone object if I greatly reduced the Zinn quotes in this article? OCNative 07:42, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

That seems reasonable to me. The article oddly currently reads like it's more about Zinn than about Lewis, even talking about where Zinn's articles were reprinted. --Delirium 22:47, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Almost two years later, the article still is mostly quotes from Howard Zinn and definitely should be re-written.--Gloriamarie (talk) 23:47, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

Wikiquote John Lewis

If your looking to access these quotes in wikiquote type in John Lewis just into the search box —The preceding unsigned comment was added by McNoddy (talk • contribs) 13:44, 7 March 2007 (UTC).--McNoddy 13:45, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

I removed the quotations from this page as they were repetitive when used in conjunction with WikiQuote. Please post on the discussion page any reasons for why they are necessary before changing the page back. Diablomarcus 03:28, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Needs editing

I'm not going to do it, but as an interested reader, I suggest that the article be thoroughly edited. The last half, especially, is a series of disconnected sentences. Bellagio99 (talk) 00:37, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Post 2008-election quote

The quote to CBS needs a reference or I'm going to delete it. I want to go back and verify that he was specifically speaking of the 1963 civil rights bill, or was he referring to a later civil rights bill, or was he referring to all the civil rights legislation in general. It's a good quote and I'd like to keep it, but I need to know what he actually said I your mom. —MiguelMunoz (talk) 01:15, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

John Lewis (U. S. politician)?

Why the spaces after U. S. ? Is that now the standard format? Kingturtle (talk) 13:09, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Middle Name

Can his middle name be confirmed? I don't see it in his congressional biography and I see him referred to as Congressman John L. Lewis at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-david-saperstein/going-to-jail-to-fight-ge_b_194601.html Thanks! --Lbeaumont (talk) 15:13, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

Political positions

Source:[2] Jesanj (talk) 02:12, 18 February 2011 (UTC)