Congressman John Lewis, R-Ga., called the election of President Barack Obama the "down payment" on Dr. Martin Luther King's dream in a speech sponsored by the Hamilton County Democratic Party Saturday night.
Lewis, who spoke to an estimated crowd of 400 at Olivet Baptist Church, emphasized that Democrats were responsible for the passage of bills that created Social Security, Medicare, the Higher Education Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
"We cannot forget; we must vote now like we never have," Lewis said. "The vote is the most nonviolent power in a democratic society, and we must use it."
Lewis, the son of an Alabama sharecropper, was elected to Congress in 1986. He served as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1963-1966 and co-organized the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
He currently is senior chief deputy whip for the Democratic Party in the House.
During his speech, Lewis used the story of a man who had apologized and asked for forgiveness after beating him during one of the freedom rides as an example to encourage his fellow Democrats to continue moving forward.
"We all live in the same house in the Democratic Party," he said. "We are the big tent … We need to make some noise, [and] we need to make some trouble, some necessary trouble."
The $10 per person fundraiser was to raise funds for get-out-the-vote and voter access efforts. Attendees included Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester, state Sen. Andy Berke, state Reps. JoAnne Favors and Tommie Brown, Hamilton County School Board Member Jeffrey Wilson, City Council Members Russell Gilbert and Andrae McGary, 3rd District congressional candidates Dr. Mary Headrick and Bill Taylor, Hamilton County mayor candidate Dr. Rick Wilson, Hamilton County Commission candidate Mitzi Yates and Hamilton County assessor candidate Jelena Butler.
Updated @ 7:31 a.m. on 02/20/12 to correct a grammatical error.
