Congressman John Lewis, a Hillary Clinton supporter and endorser, recently made news when he suggested that Bernie Sanders’ claim of being a civil rights activist, wasn’t true. During his endorsement of Hillary Clinton, Lewis said that he never saw Sanders during his travels while fighting for civil rights in his early days.
“I never saw him. I never met him,” John Lewis said. “I was chair of the student non-violent coordinating committee for 3 years, from 1963 to 1966. I was involved in the sit-ins, the freedom ride, the march on Washington, the march from Selma to Montgomery and directed the board of education project for six years… But I met Hillary Clinton. I met President Clinton.”
With some backlash from some, Lewis clarified his statements with this
“In the interest of unity, I want to clarify the statement I made at Thursday’s news conference.
“I was responding to a reporter’s question who asked me to assess Sen. Sanders’ civil rights record. I said that when I was leading and was at the center of pivotal actions within the Civil Rights Movement, I did not meet Sen. Bernie Sanders at any time. The fact that I did not meet him in the movement does not mean I doubted that Sen. Sanders participated in the Civil Rights Movement, neither was I attempting to disparage his activism. Thousands sacrificed in the 1960s whose names we will never know, and I have always given honor to their contribution.”
