Barack Obama's Inspiring Words At The Funeral Of Rep. John Lewis

As the nation mourns the loss of John Lewis, the legendary civil rights activist turned longstanding member of the House of Representatives who died on July 17th after a battle with cancer, leaders and former U.S. presidents have gathered to pay their respects and celebrate his monumental life. 

At Lewis's funeral on Thursday, held at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, President Barack Obama, who awarded Lewis with the Presidental Medal of Freedom in 2011, was among those who gave a moving eulogy for the icon. 

"It is a great honor to be back at Ebenezer Baptist Church, at the pulpit of its greatest pastor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to pay my respects to perhaps his finest disciple," Obama said. "I’ve come here today because I like so many Americans owe a great debt to John Lewis, and his forceful vision of freedom."

Former President Barack Obama delivers the eulogy for the late Rep. John Lewis.

“I’ve come here today because I, like so many Americans, owe a great debt to John Lewis and his forceful vision of freedom.” https://t.co/QLiowAMtKe pic.twitter.com/YskS4xKeMI
— CNN (@CNN) July 30, 2020

"Now this country is a constant work in progress. We’re born with instructions to form a more perfect union, and explicit in those words is the idea that we’re imperfect," he continued. "What gives each new generation purpose is to take up the unfinished work of the last and carry it further than any might have thought possible."

During his 40-minute speech, the former president looked back in awe at the actions of a young Lewis, who was among the first of the Freedom Riders in the segregated South during the early days of the Civil Rights Movement. "Imagine the courage of [people] Malia’s age, younger than my oldest daughter, on their own. John was only 20 years old. But he pushed all 20 of those years to the center of the table, betting everything — all of it — that his example could challenge centuries of convention and generations of brutal violence."

"America was built by John Lewises. ... John Lewis will be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better America," former President Barack Obama says in his eulogy for the late civil rights icon https://t.co/YRwvPuKsqO pic.twitter.com/ZMWpJIuXr9
— CNN (@CNN) July 30, 2020

"America was built by John Lewises. He as much as anyone in our history brought this country a little bit closer to our highest ideas. And someday when we do finish that long journey toward freedom, when we do form a more perfect union, whether it’s years from now or decades, or even if it takes another two centuries, John Lewis will be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better America."

[Photos via Getty/2011]