Atlanta, Ga. — U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock are helping preserve and protect the late Congressman John Lewis’ legacy.
Today, Sens. Ossoff and Rev. Warnock announced they are delivering Federal funding to the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation to help digitize and protect the late Congressman’s archives and teachings from his time in Congress.
This funding will help preserve and showcase a number of invaluable documents and materials left by Congressman Lewis. Housed at the National Archives, the digitization of these materials will provide access for students, historians, academics, and individuals worldwide to study and explore Congressman Lewis’ commitment to justice and equality for all and his lifelong commitment to peace.
The digitization will also launch the development of a virtual center and serve as the basis of a physical space in Atlanta for leadership and professional development as well as civic engagement through the Good Trouble curriculum designed to inspire and empower young people for generations to come.
Sens. Ossoff and Rev. Warnock brought Republicans and Democrats together to deliver $595,000 for the project through this year’s bipartisan government funding package.
“Congressman Lewis’ life-long commitment to civil rights, nonviolence, and universal human dignity remain essential to local, national, and global progress. No one’s ideas or approach to public life have had more of an impact on me than Congressman Lewis,” Sen. Ossoff said. “It’s imperative we protect and preserve Congressman Lewis’ teachings and records to help inspire future generations and to protect his legacy. That’s why Senator Reverend Warnock and I brought Republicans and Democrats together to support the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation’s ongoing project to curate, digitize, and protect Congressman Lewis’ records and archives. I thank CEO Detria Austin Everson, Chair Michael Collins, the Lewis family, and the entire organization for bringing this proposal to our offices and for their continued work to protect and preserve Congressman Lewis’ legacy.”
“I was Congressman Lewis’ pastor, but I’m clear he was my mentor. The night before I presided over his funeral, as I was considering what I would say, I asked myself what he may have been thinking when he crossed Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge, encountering all that violence? Certainly he was just trying to stay alive so he could live and fight another day, but somehow, by some stroke of grace mingled with human determination, he managed to cross a bridge and build a bridge to the future at the same time,” said Senator Warnock, who is also the Senior Pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, of which Lewis was a member. “He is one of Georgia’s greatest sons and he taught us all how to make ‘good trouble,” which is why I was proud to work with Senator Ossoff to secure these federal funds for the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation so that future generations may learn and benefit from the lessons of his life and his tireless work to advance democracy, equality and justice.”
“I am very excited about the Foundation’s plans to protect, preserve and make available to the public my father’s documents and materials from his time in Congress,” said Congressman Lewis’ son, John-Miles Lewis. “Dad did so much, in so many ways for so many. Students, researchers, activists and policymakers can learn from this collection of materials what he tried to do and why, as well as what he was able to accomplish and how.”
“Congressman Lewis used to always say ‘use me for good.’ That is exactly what we are doing with this project, giving researchers, lawmakers, teachers, historians and students access to all of his work while in Congress for 34 years. The letters he wrote and received, the speeches he made, the bills he sponsored, backgrounders, etc. — all will be available online to the public,” said Michael Collins, Board Chair for the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation.
“We are honored to be entrusted with this work of illuminating Congressman Lewis’ remarkable legacy — including his pivotal role as a civil rights icon tirelessly advocating to strengthen our nation’s democracy and his 34-year tenure in Congress,” said Detria Everson, the Foundation’s President and CEO. “We are proud to carry his work forward and get into what Congressman Lewis called ‘good trouble, necessary trouble’.”
# # #
