Civil rights icon John Lewis clarified remarks he made earlier this week questioning Bernie Sanders’ participation in the civil rights movement.
At a press conference Thursday, where Lewis and several members of the Congressional Black Caucus endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, Lewis, a congressman from Georgia, said “I never saw him,” when asked about Sanders’ involvement in the movement.
In a statement issued by the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee on Saturday, Lewis said that “in the interest of unity” he wanted to clarify his comment.
“I was responding to a reporter’s question who asked me to assess Sen. Sanders’ civil rights record,” Lewis said. “I said that when I was leading and was at the center of pivotal actions within the Civil Rights Movement, I did not meet Sen. Bernie Sanders at any time. The fact that I did not meet him in the movement does not mean I doubted that Sen. Sanders participated in the Civil Rights Movement, neither was I attempting to disparage his activism. Thousands sacrificed in the 1960s whose names we will never know, and I have always given honor to their contribution.”
Lewis added that he did actually meet Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton on the front lines of the civil rights movement, and that has since matured into a lasting relationship.
“I did not say that I met Hillary and Bill Clinton when I was chairman of [the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee] in the 1960s,” said Lewis. “My point was that when I was doing the work of civil rights, led the Voter Education Project and organized voter registration in the South in the 1970s, I did cross paths with Hillary and Bill Clinton in the field. They were working in politics, and Bill Clinton became attorney general of Arkansas in the 1970s as well. That began a relationship with them that has lasted until today.”
Lewis urged Democrats not to “get lost in hostility and discord.”
“After all, it was not the Democrats who sponsored and defended Citizens United, who are making it harder to register and vote, or are working to privatize Social Security, get rid of Obamacare, Medicare, food and income supports for the poor, the hungry and more. We should debate the issues vigorously, but we must not tear each other apart and damage our ability to unite and defeat the Republican nominee for president,” Lewis said.
