A legendary member of Congress has died, a member that accomplished more before serving in the House than most of us do during several lifetimes.  I am talking about John Lewis.

There is much to say about this man.  Allow me to just focus on two things I found fascinating about his life.

When John Lewis was a young man, he noticed that there were parts of his community in Alabama where Black people could not go.  He always was required to sit in the balcony of the movie theater, never on the main floor.

When he asked his parents and grandparents for an explanation, they just told him not to question it – that’s the way it’s always been, just don’t make any trouble.  John Lewis spent the rest of his life not following his parents advice.

He did what he described as “good trouble,” pushing for social justice and civil rights in the Jim Crow south.  He nearly died after having his skull fractured by police as he and many others attempted to cross a bridge in a peaceful march to the state capital in Montgomery.  There were other instances where Lewis and others came close to death making “good trouble.”

Secondly, John Lewis lived by a very important concept…when you are right and on the right side of history, never give up…..never, ever give up.  When Mississippi civil rights leader Medgar Evers was shot and killed outside his home in 1963, it would have been easy for Lewis to give up.  When Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1963, it would have been easy to give up.

But John Lewis never gave up.  Perhaps it was because he survived that he chose to run for congress and remained there for 34 years.  He fought for the causes in which he believed, and followed his own advice of never giving up.

John Lewis was a man not just of conviction, but a man willing to put his life on the line to fight for those principles.

I went to Washington and Capitol Hill several times as part of legislative conferences and always hoped to perhaps see John Lewis in the hallway, shake his hand and thank him for his service to the nation.  I never had that chance, but here is a story that may make you smile.

I did see the late Elijah Cummings speak, and he told us how many times people visiting the Capitol would mistake him for John Lewis.  It happened so often Cummings stopped correcting the tourists and just smiled and thanked them.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Dan Stevens of Alaska posted tributes to John Lewis, and used pictures of Elijah Cummings instead of John Lewis.