Politics
Unfortunately, Lewis did not win the 1977 election, losing to Wyche Fowler in a runoff. However, he was rewarded for his attempt with a job as associate director of ACTION (federal agency for volunteer service) for domestic operations. Two years later, in 1979, he resigned from ACTION because he “had listened to too much talk, waded through too much paperwork, battled over too many budgets and seen too few tangible responses to real, human, heartbreaking problems-problems the government was fully capable of dealing with directly if it could only move beyond political haggling and turn to the task of serving the people” (428). In 1981, Lewis was elected to the Atlanta City Council “with a platform based on the nurturing of an ethical, fair and just biracial community” (432). He planned “to raise his voice, as he always had, for the voiceless, the dispossessed, those outside the walls of power” (432). Another focus of his was ethics in government. At the time, government in Atlanta was very corrupt, and Lewis wanted to clean it up. Predictably, he encountered backlash from other council members who were benefiting from corruption. One of the biggest conflicts between them was over a plan to build a Jimmy Carter library and research center in Atlanta’s downtown Great Park with a four-lane highway to bring visitors and tourists to the center. Lewis opposed the highway because “it would further congest Atlanta’s overly congested downtown traffic; it would provide an expressway for white flight; in a city which already fell short of environmental standards for clean air, it would cause further pollution; and it would divide and do damage to several old, established downtown neighborhoods and historic homes, black and white” (434). Most African American Atlanta politicians running for election were in agreement. That being said, once they were elected, “several of them switched positions, including the mayor” (434-5). Why? “The jobs offered by this highway construction were extremely enticing, especially at a time when the city’s budget was being squeezed by massive federal and state cuts in funding” (435). Lewis “began hearing from some the mayor’s staff. One of his assistants came to Lewis and suggested that his campaign debt would be “taken care of” if he supported the mayor. Friends and people he respected delivered messages … “This is going to hurt you if the mayor loses,” they said” (435). Even Jimmy Carter called Lewis trying to convince him to vote for the highway. Lewis voted against the highway, but it was passed with a compromise, the highway would be two lanes instead of four. To punish him for his refusal to cooperate, the politicians in charge made sure he “was kept off any of the important committees …. and made sure that he did not become a chairman of any committee he served on during his five years on the council” (436). Even though he knew the risks of doing so, Lewis still voted against the highway. He tried to empower African Americans who would be harmed by the highway while his colleagues sold out. In 1985, Lewis was reelected to the city council with eighty-five percent of the vote. His colleagues did not appreciate him, but his constituents did. While serving his second term, he decided to run for Congress again. Wyche Fowler was running for Senate, so Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District seat was open again. Announcing his candidacy in February, he began campaigning. No one thought he would win. Competing against Julian Bond, Lewis was a massive underdog. None of the prominent African Americans in Atlanta endorsed him and Bond had endorsements from celebrities and politicians across the country. Bond was also “bringing in three and four times as much money each week as Lewis” (441). Lewis’ strategy was “a biracial appeal aimed at all segments of the community” (442). Attempting to gather support from every constituency and letting them know his Civil Rights history, Lewis was not discouraged. On election day, Bond came in first and Lewis came in second. Keeping Bond below fifty percent of the vote, Lewis prepared for a runoff. Bond challenged him to a series of five debates, and after each debate Bond’s lead shrank. On September 2nd, election day, Lewis won with fifty two percent of the vote.
Lewis has held Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District seat ever since. While in office, he has “casted his vote more than 95 percent of the time” and “positioned himself to take care of the bread-and-butter needs of his district as well as helped to steer and govern the nation as a whole” (456). As he says, “my overarching duty, … has been to uphold and apply to our entire society the principles which formed the foundation of the movement to which I have devoted my entire life, a movement I firmly believe is still continuing today. I came to Congress with a legacy to uphold, with a commitment to carry on the spirit, the goals and the principles of nonviolence, social action and a truly interracial democracy. … [My] first concern is the basic needs of citizens-not just black Americans but all Americans-for food, shelter, health care, education, jobs, livable incomes and the opportunity to realize their full potential as individual people” (456). During his term he has sponsored “legislation that has ranged from funding for breast cancer research to laws ensuring environmental protection and safety. He has stood in picket lines, supporting laborers ranging from workers at a poultry processing plant in North Carolina to employees of Eastern Airlines. He has spoken at countless union rallies across the country. He was arrested-yes, again- in 1988 outside the South African Embassy in D.C. for joining demonstrators protesting the racial repression mounting in that nation at the time. That same year he traveled to Moscow to meet with “refuseniks”-Soviet Jews who had been denied permission to leave for Israel-and to address members of the Supreme Soviet on the subject of human rights” (456-7). He also “stood on the floor of the House in January 1991 to oppose the Gulf war resolution” (457). Importantly, he has “worked hard during his time in Washington to have the government commemorate in various ways what was achieved by the civil rights movement, … among the initiatives he’s pushed have been the creation of a National African American Museum in Washington, D.C., and the designation of the route from Selma to Montgomery as a National Historic Trail” (458). Now serving as Senior Chief Deputy Whip for the Democratic Party in the house and a member of the House Ways & Means Committee and its Subcommittees on Income Security and Family Support and on Oversight, Lewis is still fighting for the empowerment of not only African Americans, but all Americans and even those in foreign countries. Most recently, he staged a sit-in on the House floor on June 22nd, 2016 for gun safety legislation. Lewis truly has devoted his whole life to the empowerment of African Americans. It will be interesting to see what he does next.