Bacon Statement on Passing of Civil Rights Icons Lewis and Vivian

Omaha, Neb. - Congressman Don Bacon (NE-02) today issued the following statement on the passing of two civil rights icons: Rep. John Lewis and Pastor C.T. Vivian:
"Today our nation lost two men who were stalwarts in the civil rights movement: Rep. John Lewis and Pastor C.T. Vivian. Both men worked alongside Rev. Martin Luther King in the fight for racial justice during the Jim Crow era.

"Both men were part of the Freedom Riders – a group of people who travelled across the south to make sure bus terminals and other areas were not segregated, and trained waves of activists in non-violent protests. Not only were they each arrested dozens of times, they were also subjected to physical beatings for simply standing for civil rights. Rep. Lewis’s skull was fractured on ‘Bloody Sunday’ when he and others were attacked with clubs while marching for voting rights on Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.  Pastor Vivian was also attacked in Selma, when the local sheriff beat him until blood dripped off his chin, for simply leading a group of people to register to vote. And they both believed in confronting these injustices peacefully, or as Rep. Lewis liked to say, with ’good trouble.’

"Our nation owes them a debt of gratitude, and we need to realize the fight is not over. We should honor their legacies by peacefully leading the charge for change."

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