Cristales 1

Kimberly Cristales

English 115

November 2, 2020

Final Project Text Essay (Revised & Polished)

The start of 2020 was life changing due to Coronavirus and the mass murdering of

innocent black life. The reason I state this is because I’m a student at CSUN and I witnessed and

heard all the mass murderings of black women and men by white police officers. This led to a

huge peaceful protest, which included multiple races of middle age adults and young adults. The

rally was peaceful until a police officer decided to be ruthless and use tear gas. They also used

brutal force to shut down the voices of these people who want justice and who want police

officers to be more alert and stop the mass killing of black lives. John Lewis was in the same

position as we are today back to 1960 where Segregation was a huge problem between Whites

and Blacks. John Lewis was the 5th U.S. House of Representatives for Georgia’s district. During

his younger years as a child working at a farm, John heard over the radio about Martin Luther

King Jr.’s excellent work about fighting Civil rights. ​As John Lewis grows up he matures and

begins to consider civil rights and does hard labor for tuition. He transformed all this suffrage by

fighting what was right for himself and for his people of color. While he fought for his rights the

main ways that impacted his activism was following his beliefs in God. This main point greatly

impacted his activism by having the courage to do peaceful, nonviolent protests with his

classmates and everyone else he could gather. Realizing that the segregation between the black

and whites needs to be stopped once and for all.

John Lewis grew up believing in God, he believed in faith and peace for all human

beings. John Lewis as a child used to gather all his chickens in a circle and he began to preach
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about the word of God to the chickens. In the comic book called ​March ​by John Lewis, he told

his audience that when he was a kid, he used to go into the chicken coops and preached to them

while they slept. “I would get them all into the henhouse and settle them on their roosts. I would

preach to my chickens just about every night”​(Lewis, 27)​.​ God spoke to John Lewis at a young

age and later influenced him for the rest of his life as he grew older. Lewis followed the words of

God during all his protests and speeches which of course impacted his activism and made him

invincible.​ John would say to himself, “if the spirit said walk, if the spirit said picket — “I’m

gonna do what the spirit said do. Without our faith, we wouldn’t have been able to succeed”

(Lawton’s interview)​. ​John's faith with God was extraordinary as he followed His words, without

Him Lewis wouldn't be able to succeed during all those activism peaceful rights.​ During John

Lewis' time of activism he questioned many times about God. He’ll ask for wisdom, knowledge

and sometimes John will lose faith in his God at times. ​“​And we would ask questions about what

Jesus would do”​(​Lawton’s interview)​. Lewis’s faith was being tested by God to see whether his

faith is still present within him. ​With God’s faith by his side one of the things that impacted his

activism was being positioned to be leader of the activism group of Student Nonviolent

Coordinating Committee for Civil Rights.​ As the fight for Civil Rights was being realized by

many races, John recognized his life not as different from the other Civil Rights leaders. “But, in

a sense, the movement, Martin Luther King Jr., and these other religious leaders who led the civil

rights movement, they not only rescued many of us but they also saved us and made us better

human beings” ​(Lawton’s interview)​. Lewis accepted his life decision from doing the right thing

for Civil rights and being happy with the results that many lives are going to change for John

fighting for ending segregation. ​Coming back to God’s words greatly affected Lewis’s goals

along the way by fighting through John Lewis’s activism.

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Life has changed for the better but the suffering will always be there. Suffering is what

every human being goes through no matter what circumstance. “So it would seem that there is no

way to escape the suffering that prevails everywhere”​(Richard,pg 37)​. Human beings have to

suffer to get to a position they want and this is a clear example of Lewis. He and his people of

color suffered from being discriminated against by whites. Life will never go the way you want

even on how hard you’ll work and how much faith you have in God. Buddist don’t believe in

God but have a different perspective on God and suffering. “According to Buddhism suffering

will always exist as a universal phenomenon, but every individual has the potential for liberation

from it.”​( Richard,pg 37)​. Suffering stops until an individual achieves their goal and Lewis

likewise reached this goal to stop segregation but every other individual has to fight their own

problem of segregation to finally put a stop to it.

The end of suffering can occur and peace can be achieved but we can't let problems

overwhelm us. “Likewise, peace is a treasure of the mind that is not acquired without effort. If

we let ourselves be overwhelmed by our personal problems, no matter how tragic, we only

increase our difficulties and become a burden on those around us” ​(Richard, pg 41)​. ​Being a

burden is the worst feeling us human beings can be endured in and Lewis must have thought

during his time of fighting for Civil rights. ​Suffering is a life process but the influence that John

lewis created for the society which was a great impact from his time as leader of the Student

Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to the 5th congressional for the district of Georgia. John's

fighting ability.​ His words from God are what kept him and other individuals fighting even

though a lot of suffering was caused but they fought till the end for Civil Rights.​ “Do not give

up, do not give out, and do not give in. We must hold on, and we must not get lost in a sea of

despair”( Batten, Vol.6 3rd). John had the will to continue fighting for what was right and caused
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a chain reaction with the people to have peaceful protests. ​John likewised inspired many

congressmen by his wise words from God since he was a preacher.​ “​In March 2003, Lewis led a

group of fellow representatives and other politicians on a ‘Civil Rights Pilgrimage’, a tour of

significant sites in Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma, Alabama”(Batten, Vol.6 3rd). Doing

all this to accomplish the Civil Rights for blacks and creating an image to the congressman, these

places are the hot zones where the majority of the fight for Civil Rights were taken place. The

Civil Rights Act was established by John officially by 2004 to 2008 where Barack Obama was

the first African American to be the 44th President of the United States. ​This shows that these

peaceful protests Lewis did was not for waste and that Black people had a great opportunity to

do great things in the United states and all it took was faith in God.​ “Later that year, Lewis was

re-elected to Congress in the 5th District of Georgia​”​( Batten ,Vol.6 3rd). After Obama was

elected president, the people wanted Lewis again to be the 5th Congressional of the United States

Representative of Georgia. Lewis has accomplished great things during his time and made

historical events to not be forgotten. ​God guided him along the way on how to peacefully reach

these goals for the sake of his people of color without any violence where God stated in the 10

amendments.

The time has come that America adopts the Declaration of Indepence that every man and

woman are created equal and should be enforced for anyone who decides to violate this Law.
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Work Cited
● Lawton, Kim. “​Kim Lawton’s interview: John Lewis extended Interview.” PBS.

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2004/01/16/january-16-2004-john-lewis-extended-in

terview/2897/​ Accessed 16 January 2004.

● "Lewis, John Robert." ​Gale Encyclopedia of American Law​, edited by Donna Batten, 3rd

ed., vol. 6, Gale, 2011, pp. 326-329. ​Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,​

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX1337702670/OVIC?u=csunorthridge&sid=OVIC&xid

=8b151d11. Accessed 6 Nov. 2020. Battern,Vol.6 3rd.

● Ricard, Mattieu. ​The Alchemy of Suffering.​

https://canvas.csun.edu/courses/80419/files/9933271?module_item_id=3016790​. Pg.

37,41

● Lewis, John. ​March. ​Top Shelf Productions. 20 January 2015. Pg 37