Page 10 - John Lewises News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

By John Boone‍ Image via Jeff Hutchens/Getty Images There is a well-circulated petition seeking to have the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, renamed after Rep. John Lewis, who marched across it more than 50 years ago in a landmark moment for the civil rights movement. It would be a fitting testament to the man's legacy, which began before he marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. on that Bloody Sunday on the bridge, and continued on through his work in government, where he was known as the conscience of the Congress. Lewis died on July 17, 202...

Ordinary people, a young kid from troy, can stand up to the powers and principalities and say, no, this isn't right, this a isn't true, this isn't just. we can do better. america was built by people like them. america was built by john lewises. >> reporter: the former president argued that forces are still trying to suppress the vote today, right now, in november's election. >> even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive i.d. laws and attacking ou...

There's a strategy to -- that's why i said to these young people from parkland. you can't just go down there and march. there's a strategy to the marching. there's an intention. there has to be a very clear intention behind what you're doing and why you're doing it. so by the time rosa parks sat down on that bus, they had been planning that for a very long time. that had been coming for a long time. everybody talks about it. oh, that particular day, rosa just said, my feet were tired. that is not true. that was a strategic thing that happened there. so there hasn't been a darker time, i believ...

Individual -- there's not an individual threat. and if you go about your business, targeting any particular kind of threat it leaves you vulnerable to others. so, it's a broad range. the intelligence community is certainly a significant part of it. and then the exercising that goes on and the implementation of a security scheme all come together to combat not a particular kind of threat, but threats in general. >> do you cover protesters any differently? >> no. protesters certainly -- living in america, everyone has a right to protest as long as it's done lawfully. in this particular circumsta...

>> but why would -- >> victoria, we do this every year during mlk day, right? we think what would martin luther king jr. say today about where we're at? react, of course, to what robert and sahil said. as a researcher and academic, i know you do this every year. you think about topics like this. what would an mlk say today about where we're at? >> well, i think he would follow the course of saying, we need to make our positions known. we cannot engage in violent protests, but we need to exercise our constitutional rights to protest, nonviolent protests. this is going to be very important. and ...