Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., said he doesn’t know what Donald Trump is talking about when he says blacks are worse off now than ever before.
“I don’t know what Mr. Trump is talking about to say that the situation for African-Americans is worse than it’s ever been,” Lewis said on MSNBC. “Is he talking about worse than slavery? Worse than the system the of segregation and racial discrimination, when we couldn’t take a seat at the lunch counter and be served? Worse than being denied the right to register to vote, to participate in the democratic process and live in certain neighborhoods and communities?”
Trump said during a campaign rally Tuesday that “we’re going to rebuild our inner cities because our African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape they’ve ever been in before. Ever, ever, ever.” Trump has made repeated calls for black voters to support him, arguing Democratic policies have failed them.
“We have seen changes,” he added. “If he failed to believe that things have changed I invite him to come and walk in my shoes.”
Lewis was one of the “Big Six” leaders in the Civil Rights Movement who helped organize the landmark 1963 March on Washington and was elected to Congress for the first time in 1987.
A Trump surrogate from defended the comments on Wednesday, telling CNN he didn’t think they were intended to imply that conditions for minorities have not improved since segregation.
“I don’t think he’s talking about the days of Jim Crow, even the days of the civil rights movement of the ’60s and obviously not slavery. But he’s saying the African-American community is at times being outpaced by other communities,” said New York City council member Joseph Borelli.
