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From 18-20, I worked in the Equitable Building in Atlanta. Lots of reasons that was great, but among the top was that @repjohnlewis' district office was one floor below mine. Several times a year, I'd get to share a 19 floor ride w a living legend that seemed happy to talk to me.
I was super lucky to have spent my late teens in ATL. Andrew Young and I shared the same garage (Commerce Club). I sometimes saw Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown) in West End. And my work took me into meetings with Dexter & Coretta Scott King.
The men and women in your civil rights history books still walk(ed) among us. (The terrible ones do, too. I once sat through a luncheon next to the ex-wife of one of Georgia's most awful segregationist governors, & she happily detailed all of his failures.)
All of that is to say that I was extraordinarily lucky to start my adult life in proximity to elders who had a huge impact on this country. And I tried to respectfully soak up what I could from all of them. And Rep. Lewis, by a mile, was the most accessible of all.
Most were patient and kind. You can imagine that it gets tiresome after a while for others. Rep. Lewis, I don't know, maybe because of repetition, or who he was, or what, he was the most accessible. He indulged my being amazed. He gave good advice about
being patient (I frequently complained to him about GOP attacks on AmeriCorps, a program important to both of us). Was just him & some young white kid in the elevator, but he gave me time. Both a legend & a man & everything in between, all @ once.
I thank @repjohnlewis for that.
I thank @repjohnlewis for that.
