Government

Congressman Lewis is Recipient of Thurgood Marshall Award

Published

6 years ago

August 17, 2019

Rep. John Lewis was honored by the American Bar Association as the 2019 recipient of the Thurgood Marshall Award. Over 500 attendees paid tribute to the life and legacy of Rep. Lewis.

The congressman was unable to attend, however he gave a magnificent “acceptance speech” that was broadcast on the big screen at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco.

Rep. John Lewis has dedicated his life to fighting for freedom, justice, and equal rights. He was arrested 40 times, five times as a member of Congress.

He is one of the original 13 Freedom Riders, a founding member and a Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the only one of the “Big Six” civil rights leaders who organized the 1963 March on Washington still living, and a 17-term congressional leader.

He is often called “one of the most courageous persons the Civil Rights Movement ever produced.”

“The lawyers of the Civil Rights Movement, under the strategic guidance of Thurgood Marshall, William Hastie and others, took the struggle for social justice out of the streets and brought it into the courtroom. Their success was a key component of non-violent social transformation,” said Rep. Lewis. There are powerful forces moving today, however, that want to undo what we accomplished just a few decades ago. We must power up to maximum strength and meet the legal challenges of these efforts to protect and defend the democratic society lawyers like Justice Marshall helped create. I am honored by the ABA’s award and encourage the continued work of ABA members to make this a fairer, just society,” he continued.

Rep. Lewis’s dedication to the highest ethical standards and moral principles has won him the admiration of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle in the United States Congress and of Americans all over the country.

“Congressman Lewis is most deserving of this honor,” said Robert Harris, past President, National Bar Association. “He, like Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, epitomizes individual commitment, in word and action, to the cause of civil rights in this country.”

The attendees at the dinner included some of the Bay Areas “Who’s Who.” The Honorable U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson, 2013 recipient of the Thurgood Marshall Award, and his wife, Maria; Robert Harris, past president, National Bar Association, and his wife, Dr. Glenda Newell Harris; Wilfred Ussery, past president, Bay Area Rapid Transit, and his wife, Maxine; and Paul and Gay Plair Cobb, publisher and co-publisher, the Post News Group.

Conway Jones

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

Published

3 days ago

June 7, 2025

Oakland Post

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Oakland Post

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Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

1 week ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.