As the nation mourns the loss of Georgia Congressman John Lewis, the first thoughts are rightly about his heroism on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, his work with the Freedom Riders, and his 33 years fighting for justice on Capitol Hill. But as statements pour in from expected sources like former President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, it becomes clear that this man who joined Dr. Martin Luther King at the 1963 March on Washington at the age of 23, and who was regularly featured on television and in documentaries throughout his life, touched just about everyone.
A cursory glance at Twitter finds warm comments from a variegated assortment of notables, the tip of the iceberg leading from Stephen King to Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, with individuals like Billy Porter, George Takei, and Cyndi Lauper along the way.
Lewis, who died at the age of 80 late Friday, preached nonviolent resistance during the civil rights era, putting his life on the line numerous times, most famously at the Selma to Montgomery March when he was beaten by a state trooper. Decades later, Lewis brought his story in graphic novel form to San Diego Comic-Con. As lines snaked through the convention center for autographs of the book March, the then-73-year-old joked “Where’s my hat, my mask?” while eyeing the spandex-heavy crowd. “I feel somewhat out of place going around with a suit and tie on,” he told Fast Company.
Three years later, Lewis was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to promote the third book in the March series, when he ended up crowd surfing through the Ed Sullivan Theater. “I crossed that bridge, I’d been beaten and arrested and jailed a few times, so just going with the flow … I thought it would be okay,” he explained soon thereafter on Face the Nation.
Back in 2008 Lewis appeared briefly (but with a wide smile) in the video for Young Jeezy’s pro-Obama anthem “My President.” (You can see him at the 3:15 mark.) The song was recorded on the day Obama clinched the Democratic nomination, and the video was shot a few days after he won the general election.
More recently, in 2018, Lewis voiced “John Lewis,” a Congressman and bear, on the PBS cartoon Arthur. He provides guidance to Arthur about an instance of injustice in the episode “Arthur Takes a Stand.”