Remarks from three former president s, george w. Bush, bill clinton, and barack obama. Live coverage is here on cspan3. Amen. This is john lewis favorite poem, invictus. Out of the night that covers me, black as a pit from pole to pole, i think whatever god may be to my inconquerable soul. In the fell clutches of circumstance, i have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeons of chance, my head is bloody, but im bound. Beyond this place looms but the horror of the shade. And yet menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishment the scroll, im the master of my fate. Im the captain of my soul. John lewis was my hero and my friend, lets honor him by getting in good trouble. [ applause ] only the inconquerable spirit and the magnanimous soul of john lewis could summon all of us together in this place at this time. Only john lewis could compel three living american president s to come to this house of god. To celebrate his life. [ applause ] and we are grateful that all of them are here. The honorable george w. Bush. Who was president the last time we authorized the Voting Rights act. The honorable William Jefferson clinton. And in just a little while, well hear from the honorable barack obama. But the program will proceed as printed. President bush, president clinton, speaker of the house nancy pelosi, and another living saint among us, teacher and activist, the reverend james lawson. Good morning. Distinguished guests, john miles, lewis family and friends, laura and i thank you for inviting us to be here today. Johns story began on a tiny farm in troy, alabama. A place so small he said you could barely find it on the map. The doctor talked about the chickens. I did a little research. Every morning, he would rise before the sun to tend to the flock of chickens. He loved those chickens. Already called to be a minister who took care of others, john fed them and tended to their every need. Even their spiritual ones. For john baptized them, married them, and he preached to them. When his parents claim one for family supper, john refused to eat one of his flock. Going hungry was his first act of nonviolent protest. He also noted in later years that his first congregation of chickens listened to him more closely than some of his colleagues in congress. John also thought that the chickens were just a little more productive. At least they produced eggs, he said. From troy to the sitins of nashville, from the freedom rides to the march on washington, from freedom summer to selma, john lewis always looked outward, not inward. He always thought of others. He always believed in preaching the gospel, in word and in deed. Insisting that hate and fear had to be answered with love and hope. John lewis believed in the lord. He believed in humanity, and he believed in america. He has been called an american saint, a believer willing to give up everything. Even life itself, to bear witness to the truth that drove him all his life. That we could build a world of peace and justice, harmony and dignity and love. And the first crucial step on that journey was the recognition that all people are born in the image of god and carry a spark of the divine within them. Laura and i were privileged to see that spark in john up close. We worked with him to bring the National Museum of africanamerican history and culture to the washington mall. He was instrumental in the emmett till unsolved civil rights crimes act, which i signed to seek resolution in cases where justice had been too long denied. And we will never forget joining him in selma, alabama, for the 50th anniversary of his march across the Edmund Pettus bridge where we got to watch president barack obama thank john as one of his heroes. Theres a story in the old scriptures that meant a lot to john. In the hebrew bible, the lord is looking for a prophet. Whom shall i send, god wonders, and who will go for us . Isaiah answers, here am i. Send me. John lewis heard that call a long time ago in segregated alabama. And he took up the work of the lord through all his days. His lesson for us is that we must all keep ourselves open to the hearing the call of love. The call of service. And the call to sacrifice for others. Listen, john and i had our disagreements, of course. But in the America John Lewis fought for and the america i believe in, differences of opinion are inevitable elements and evidence of democracy in action. [ applause ] we the people including congressmen and president s, can have differing views on how to perfect our union while sharing the conviction that our nation, however flawed, is at heart a good and noble one. We live in a better and nobler country today because of john lewis. And his abiding faith in the power of god, in the power of democracy, and in the power of love to lift us all to a higher ground. The story that began in troy isnt ending here today. Nor is the work. John lewis lives forever in his fathers house. And he will live forever in the hearts of americans who act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with their god. May the flags of angels see john lewis to his rest and may god bless the country he loved. [ applause ] [ applause ] thank you very much. First, i thank john miles and the lewis family, and johns incomparable staff for a chance to say a few words about a man i loved for a long time. I am grateful, pastor, to say it in ebenezer. A holy place sanctified by both the faith and the works of those who have worshipped here. I thank my friend reverend bernice king, who stood by my side and gave a fascinating sermon in one of the most challenging periods of my life. I thank president and mrs. Bush, president obama, speaker pelosi, thank you. And representative hoyer and representative clyburn. Who i really thank for with the stroke of a hand, ending an interfamily fight within our party. Proving that peace is needed by everyone. Madam mayor, thank you. You have faced more than a fair share of challenges in these last few months. And you have faced them with candor and dignity and honor. And i thank you for your leadership. [ applause ] i must say, for a fellow that got his start speaking to chickens, john got a pretty finely organized and orchestrated and deeply deserved sendoff this last week. His homegoing is something to behold. I think its important that all of us who loved him remember that he was, after all, a human being. A man like all other humans, born with strength that he made the most of when many dont. Born with weaknesses that he worked hard to beat down when many cant. But still a person. It made him more interesting. And it made him, in my mind, even greater. 20 years ago, we celebrated the 35th anniversary of the selma march, and we walked together along with coretta and many others from the movement who are no longer with us. Were grateful for andy young and reverend jackson and diane nash and many others who survive. But on that day, i got him to replay for me a story he told me when we first met back in the 1970s. And i said, you know, i was just an aspiring whatever, southern politician, and i had been elected governor and he was always a legend. So i said, john, whats the closest you ever came to getting kill doing that . And he said once we were in a demonstration and i got knocked down on the ground, and people were getting beat up pretty bad and all of a sudden i looked up, and there was a man holding a long, heavy piece of pipe and he lifted it and was clearly going to bring it right down into my skull, and at the very last second i turned my neck away and then the crowd pushed him a little bit, and a couple seconds later i couldnt believe i was still alive. I think its important to remember that. First, because he was a quick thinker. And secondly because he was here on a mission that was bigger than personal ambition. Things like that sometimes just happen, but usually they dont. I think three things happened to john lewis long before we met and became friends that made him who he was. First, the famous story of john with his cousins and siblings holding his aunts hand more than a dozen of them running around her little old wooden house as the wind threatened to blow the house off its moorings, going to the place where the house was rising and all of those tiny bodies trying to weigh it down. I think he learned something about the power of working together. Something that was more powerful than any instruction. Second, nearly 20 years later when he was 23, and the youngest speaker and the last speaker at the march on washington, when he gave a great speech urging people to take to the streets across the south to seize the chance to finally end racism. And he listened to people that he knew had the same goal say, well, we have to be careful how we say this, because were trying to get converts, not more adversaries. Just three years later he lost the leadership of snic to stokely carmichael, because he said you know, ive really, a pretty good job for a guy that young and come from troy, alabama, and must have been painful to lose, but he showed as a young man there is some things that you cannot do to hang on to a position, because if you do them you wont be who you are anymore. And i say there were two or three years there where the movement went a little bit too far towards stokely, but in the end, john lewis prevailed. We are here today because he had the kind of character he showed when he lost an election. Then there was bloody sunday. He figured he might get arrested, and this is really important not to, for all the things we all believe about john lewis, he had a really good mind and he was always trying to figure out, how can i make the most of every single moment . So hes getting ready to march from selma to montgomery. He wants to get across the bridge. What do we remember he had he made quite a strange figure. He had a trench coat and backpack. Now, young people probably think thats no big deal, but there werent that many backpacks back then, and you never saw anybody in a trench coat looking halfway dressed up with a backpack, but john put an apple, an orange, a toothbrush, toothpaste in the backpack because they thought had would get arrested. And two books on americas political tradition to feed his mind, and one the autobiographer of Thomas Merten. A Roman Catholic trappist monk who was the son of itinerant artists making an astonishing personal transformation. Whats a young guy who was about to get his brains beat out and planning on going to prison doing taking that . I think he figured that if Thomas Merten could find his way and keep his faith and believe in the future, he, john lewis, could, too. And [ applause ] so we honor our friend for his faith and for living his faith, which the scripture says is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things unseen. John lewis was a walking rebuke to people who thought, well, we aint there yet. Weve been working a long time. Isnt it time to bag it . He kept moving. He hoped for and imagined and lived and worked and moved for his beloved community. He took a savage beating on more than one day, and he lost that backpack on bloody sunday. Nobody ever knows what happened to it. Maybe some day someone will be stricken with conscience and give some of it back, but what it represented never disappears from john lewiss spirit. We honor that memory today, because as a child he learned to walk with the wind. To march with others to save a tiny house. Because of the young man he challenged others to join him with love and dignity to hold americas house down and open the doors of america to all its people. We honor him, because in selma on the third attempt john and his comrades showed that sometimes you have to walk into the wind along with wither. As he crossed the bridge and marched into montgomery. But no matter what, john always kept walking to reach the beloved community. He got into a lot of good trouble along the way, but lets not forget he also developed an absolutely uncanny ability to heal troubled waters. When he could have been angry and determined to cancel his adversaries, he tried to get converts instead. He thought the open hand was better than the clenched fist. He lived by the faith and promise of saint paul. Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not lose heart. He never lost heart. He fought the good fight, he kept the faith, but we got our last letter today on the, on the pages of the New York Times. Keep moving. It is so fitting on the day of his service. He leaves us our marching orders. Keep moving. 20 years ago when i came here after the selma march to a big dinner honoring john and lillian and john miles, you had a big afro. And it was really pretty. And your daddy was giving you grief about it and i said, john, lets not good old too soon. I mean, if i had hair like that id have it down to my shoulders. But on that night i was almost out of time and people were, to be president , and people were asking me, well, if you can do one more thing what to it be or what do you wish you could have done that you didnt and all that kind of stuff, and someone asked me that night, because i had many friends in atlanta and i said, if i could just do one thing, if god came to me tonight and said, okay. Your times up. Got to go home, and im not a genie, im not giving you three wishes. One thing what would it be . I said, i would infect every american with whatever it was that john lewis got as a 4yearold kid and took through a lifetime to keep moving and keep moving in the right direction, and keep bringing other people to move, and to do it without hatred in his heart. With a song. To be able to sing and dance. As johns brother freddie said in troy, keep moving to the ballot box, even if its a na mailbox and keep moving to the beloved community. John lewis was many things, but he was a man, a friend and sunshine in a storm. A friend who would walk the stony roads that he asked you to walk, that would brave the chastening rods he asked you to be whipped by. Always keeping his eyes on the prize. Always believing none of us would be free until all of us are equal. I just loved him. I always will. And im so great natural he stayed true to form. Hes gone up yonder, and left us with marching orders. I suggest since hes close enough to god to keep his eye on the sparrow and us we salute, suit up and march on. Good day. Im not sure, morning, afternoon, whatever it is, its an honor to be here with each and every one of you. Reverend warnock, thank you for enabling us all to be near the Ebenezer Baptist church to honor and celebrate the life with john lewis with three president s of the United States. Isnt that exciting . [ applause ] president clinton, president bush and president obama here with us. On behalf of my colleagues as speaker of the house, im pleased to bring greetings to each and every one of you. Im sad to bring condolences to the family, to john miles, to the entire lewis family. Thank you for sharing john lewis with us. Im pleased to be here with so many members. 50. We would have had more, except coronavirus prevented the church to allow us to bring more but i hope they will all stand. Members of the house of representatives senators harris and booker, who are with us as well. Senators harris and booker. Among them, mr. Hoyer, steny hoyer. Mr. Clyburn, jim clyburn and i served with john lewis for over 30 years. Over 30 years. And in our group we have senior members and we have members of our freshman class. John convinced each one of us that we were his best friend in congress. And we come with a flag flown over the capitol the night that john passed. When this flag flew there it said goodbye it waved goodbye to john, our friend, our mentor, our colleague. This beautiful man that we all had the privilege of serving with in the congress of the United States. So, again, we all bring our condolences to the family, and to Michael Collins and john staph who meant so very much to him. Thank you so much for your service to john lewis. There are many things were gritful to the family and the staff for and we commend them for, but lets acknowledge the stamina they have had to keep up with john even as he passed on from troy to selma to montgomery to washington and now to atlanta to be at rest. When john lewis served with us, he wanted us to see the Civil Rights Movement and the rest through his eyes. He told us so many stories. He taught us so much, and he took us to selma for two decades, mr. President. He took us to selma, you referenced 25 years, there many times including the 50th anniversary where president bush was agency well as president obama. And he wanted us to see how important it was. How important it was to understand the spirit of nonviolence. I hesitate to speak about nonviolence in the presence of the master himself, render lawson, who well be hearing from shortly. We were together just recently in selma when he and john spoke at church, and he taught the world, really, about nonviolence, but i just want to say this. The word sahagra means two things. It means nonviolence and it means insistence on the truth. And that is what john lewis was all about. Nonviolently insisting on the truth. He insisted on the truth in nashville, in selma, in washington, d. C. , at the Lincoln Memorial, insisted on the truth wherever he went, and he insisted on the truth in the congress of the United States. Every time he stood up to speak, we knew that he was going to take us to a higher place of our understanding of what our responsibilities were, and what our opportunities were, and he insisted no matter how, shall we say, offended someone might be, that he would insist on the truth. What he said, he said, in my life i have done all i can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn, he says, in this article that the president referenced, to let freedom ring. He always talked about truth marching on. He always worked for a more perfect union. Over the fourth of july weekend, i had the privilege of visiting with john, and i brought him this flag pin that i wear, one just like it. Why i did so on that fourth of july weekend was because it is engraved with something that says one country. One destiny. Now, wasnt that what john lewis was all about . One country. One destiny. I mention it, because this was sewn, embroidered into the lining of Abraham Lincolns coat that he had on the night he left us. I think he had the coat on all the time, but also that night. And john lewis and Abraham Lincoln had so much in common. John we got to know him first and foremost in front of the Lincoln Memorial when he made that beautiful, b