The funeral for Rep. John Lewis was already one of the most moving and impactful events in a year that has seen the nation struck down by a pandemic, battered by unmatched economic decline, and lifted up by a movement to defend Black lives. Even before President Barack Obama stepped onto the stage, the nation had been graced by song and touched by the words of everyone who came to honor a figure who, at 5’ 6”, towered over a nation.
But when it came time for the eulogy, President Barack Obama stepped forth not just to remind everyone that he is one of the most gifted orators to ever appear on the national stage, but that he was willing to do what John Lewis asked of us all. Obama got into “good trouble” right there at that pulpit. Because he didn’t stop with simply praising the man at the center of the day’s remembrance, he honored that man in the best way possible by continuing the fight from the front of the church. And it was glorious.
“John Lewis will be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better America.” — President Obama
The testimony that Obama gave about his own meetings with Lewis was more than enough to move everyone watching. Speaking of the last time they had a chance to talk following a Zoom meeting with leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement, Obama shared how he had reminded Lewis that all those marching in the streets of Minneapolis, and in Portland, and in every city across the nation, all of them—no matter what race—were John Lewis’ children. Even when they didn’t know it.
Obama’s recollection of Lewis’ life and his many impacts on America was beautiful in its own right, and was filled with images both touching and telling. The sheer love for Lewis that he and everyone else present felt was enough to light the room. But President Obama did not stop with praise, or memories, or with urging other Americans to pick up Lewis’ mantle.
There was also that necessary trouble. He did not shy away from reminding everyone why people are protesting, or what is at stake. And Obama did not hesitate to draw the very direct and necessary line between what happened with the murder of George Floyd and what’s happening right now in the streets of Portland. He also reminded everyone present that Trump’s attacks on voting rights—extended just this morning to attacks on mail-in ballots and a proposal that the election itself be delayed—were a direct assault on Lewis’ work of a lifetime.
Obama: I know this is a celebration of John’s life. There are some who might say we shouldn’t dwell on such things. But that’s why I’m talking about it. John Lewis devoted his time on this Earth to the very attacks on democracy and what’s best in America that we’re seeing circulate right now.
Obama went on to call for the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, but after saying that act did little but attempt to secure rights that were thought to be won decades ago, made it clear that everyone needed to get out and continue the fight.
Again and again, Obama returned to one theme: Everyone needs to get out and vote in “the most important election in history.”
Obama: Democracy isn’t automatic. It has to be nurtured. It has to be tended to. We have to work at it. It’s hard. […] We have to summon just a measure of John’s moral courage to question what’s right and what’s wrong.
There are going to be voices raised on the right to complain about what Obama said; to accuse him of “politicizing” a funeral. But Obama gave exactly the speech that John Lewis would have wanted, and explained exactly how to honor John Lewis’ passing: by making it possible for everyone to vote. That included not just calls to extend voting rights to former prisoners, but to make Election Day a national holiday, to make Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico states, and to eliminate the filibuster, which Obama called “another Jim Crow relic.”
