People in Lexington remember John Lewis

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — People in Lexington are remembering John Lewis and his legacy.

“He lived a very good, long life and I think that in many ways is perhaps the best revenge against the segregationists,” says UK Historian Nikki Brown.

Congressman John Lewis started his activism as a teenager. At 23 he was a keynote speaker at the historic 1963 March on Washington.

“We are literally seeing kind of the end of an era of life of people who lived through that social unrest during the fifties and sixties,” says Lexington activist Devine Carama.

Carama says a huge lesson Lewis taught is that you’re never too young to make a difference.

“Even in that space, even in that time, at that age he still took it upon himself and said ‘I’m gonna make a difference and I’m gonna lead’,” says Carama. “He almost lost his life during the social unrest in Alabama fighting for the freedoms that people like myself have today.”

“In Washington D.C. he said that the purpose of good trouble is to jar the system and the way we can make good trouble is vote and to encourage others to vote and that’s how you change the system,” says Brown.

What does Brown think Lewis would have to say about the Black Lives Matter movement?

“To not give up. That the road is going to be hard and that it’s going to take some sacrifice but the cause is good,” says Brown.

80-year-old Teddi Smith-Robillard met Lewis nearly a decade ago and talked with him about what they both faced during the Civil Rights movement.

“Anytime you get the chance to meet or talk with someone back from the day that had lived some of the stuff he lived it’s really good but it makes me sad in a way. It was an honor to meet him, it truly was an honor and I’ll never forget it,” says Smith-Robillard.