Trump vs. John Lewis

U.S. Representative John Lewis said he would not be attending Trump's inauguration this Friday. He said he didn't see Trump as a legitimate president, due to Russian interference in the election. Trump reacted on Twitter. 

Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to......

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2017

mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk - no action or results. Sad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2017

While Lewis joins many others in a lineup of Trump's Twitter targets, the president-elect's standard (and possibly automatic) criticisms rang woefully untrue. He apparently does not not know that John Lewis is the antithesis of "all talk, no action." In the 1960s, he was arrested nine times for participating in Civil Rights protests. Lewis was one of the original Freedom Riders. He was chairman of the SNCC from 1963 to 1966. He was one of the organizers of the 1963 March on Washington.

On March 7, 1965, Lewis led the first march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where a wall of state troopers and deputized locals waited to assault the marchers. That day came to be known as Bloody Sunday.

Donald Trump says John Lewis is all talk.

Here's a picture of John Lewis being beaten by a state trooper on "Bloody Sunday" in 1965. pic.twitter.com/yi81OktNhW

— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 14, 2017

It took three attempts that month for the protesters to successfully complete the march to Montgomery. In 2015, President Obama participated in the 50th anniversary recreation of the march, with Lewis returning to lead it again. That's him between the President and the First Lady.

By the way, people are also taking umbrage at Trump's dig at Atlanta as "in horrible shape and falling apart." Atlanta is pretty much the jewel of the South, and the portion that makes up Georgia's fifth district is not what anyone else would call "falling apart."

By the way, John Lewis represents a majority-black district where 88% of adults have high school diplomas and 41% have college degrees. pic.twitter.com/R17EmvMn8c

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) January 14, 2017

John Lewis was the youngest and is now the only surviving leader from the Big Six that organized the Civil Rights protests of the 1960s, and he is still working to serve the people of his country. This week, we are celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, saying goodbye to President Obama, and inaugurating a new president on Friday. It's only appropriate that we take some time to learn about the past and think about what we are going to do about the future.