Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) is well known and revered for his beginnings as a civil rights activist who marched alongside Martin Luther King, Jr.
Now, in an interview with Rolling Stone published on Friday, Lewis has revealed what he would tell Dr. King about the state of the country — and about President Donald Trump.
"I would say, 'Dr. King, we have come a distance, we have made some progress, but we still have a great distance to go before we lay down the burden of racism,'" Lewis said. "'There have been so many setbacks since you left. We have someone, the head of our government, who, in the finality, is a racist. He doesn't understand the meaning of your life and the significance of the civil-rights movement. But I truly believe, somehow and some way, we will not give up, we will not give in. We will continue to do what we must to create what you called the Beloved Community. We will do what we must to redeem the soul of America.'"
Lewis added that he has more fear for the future today even than he did at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, when he joined the famous march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.
"I was very hopeful when we were marching across that bridge. I was very, very hopeful when we were sitting in or speaking at the March on Washington," he said, adding, "But we cannot lose hope."
