Nearly a half century after he joined the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others in the great Civil Right Movement, Georgia Congressman John Lewis says the work they started is not net finished.

Speaking to a largely student crowd at Central Piedmont Community College Thursday, Lewis said the time has come for a new generation of young Americans to challenge injustices.

“As human beings we are too quiet,” he said. “We have to speak up, speak out. We have to push, pull. And where you see people not being treated fairly, you have a mandate, you have a mission and responsibility, to speak out.”

Lewis was in Charlotte to discuss his award-winning documentary, “Come Walk in My Shoes,” which retraces much of his life during the Civil Rights Movement.

'The conscience of the U.S. Congress'

Now 70, Lewis gained notoriety in the early 1960s as a fearless foot soldier in the battle for racial equality. He was beaten bloody on several occasions, including in 1965 when he and others first tried to march from Selma, Ala., to the state capital in Montgomery – a day now infamously known as Bloody Sunday.

Years earlier, while trying to integrate the nation’s interstate bus system, Lewis and other “Freedom Riders” were attacked by a white mob at a Greyhound bus station in Rock Hill.

Elwin Wilson, who said he was one of the men who beat Lewis, has since apologized.

“There’s nothing wrong with moving toward reconciliation,” Lewis said of his 2009 meeting with Wilson. “It’s redemptive. It’s powerful.”

Lewis said meeting with Wilson made him a “better and stronger” person. He also praised Wilson for being the only member of the bus station mob to step forward thus far and apologize.

“I will never forget his courage to do what he did,” Lewis said.

Now in his 12th term representing Georgia’s 5th congressional district, which includes Atlanta, Lewis has been called the “conscience of the U.S. Congress.” Each year he leads a group of federal lawmakers into the Deep South on a civil rights history tour.

'My soul became satisfied...'

The documentary, which he narrates, opens with a scene of a black man hanging from a tree. It offers snapshots of Lewis’ life, from his childhood in Troy, Ala., through the Civil rights Movement to his efforts in Congress.

Noted during the ‘60s for his courage in the face of danger, Lewis said the civil rights struggle was simply a movement whose time had come – “a nonviolent revolution, a revolution of ideas.”

“My soul became satisfied that I was right in what I was doing,” he said. “...You come a point where you lose all sense of fear... I tasted the bitter fruits of racism, and I didn’t like it.”

He recalled his first nervous meeting with King and described the civil rights leader as humorous and kind, even helping him get money to attend college at one point.

“He became my hero, my leader, almost like a big brother,” Lewis said. “...He freed me. I miss him every single day.”

When asked by an audience member what King might say about the level of violence now in black communities, Lewis said he believed the slain leader would be “very disappointed.”

A downpayment on the dream

Lewis called the election of President Obama “a major downpayment” on – but not the fulfillment of – King’s dream of a nonracial America.

At the same time, he said, the election speaks of how far the United States has come as a nation.

Lewis said he became emotional during Obama’s swearing-in ceremony when he looked out over the National Mall and saw the Lincoln Memorial, scene of the 1963 March on Washington and King’s “I have a Dream” speech. He said he found himself wishing that King had lived to witness the day.

Later that afternoon, he said, at a congressional luncheon with the new president, Obama handed him a note. It read: “Because of you. Barack Obama.”

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