With the deaths of John Lewis and C.T. Vivian, history seems to be sending a message

Sometimes I wonder if history is trying to tell us something.

July 17, for example. In the morning came news of the death of C.T. Vivian. At night, the news that Rep. John R. Lewis (D-Ga.) passed away. Two men linked by decades of struggle, success and the deep truth that struggle itself is a kind of success. They met long ago, in the days of tiny television sets and black ribbon neckties and automobiles with fins stamped from sheet metal.

Around 1960, Vivian and Lewis were students together in Nashville under the tutelage of the Rev. James M. Lawson, one of history’s great apostles of non-violent political action. Along with Diane Nash, another giant of the campaign for human dignity, they galvanized the Freedom Rides.

Key to Lawson’s greatness was his honesty. He made it fiercely clear to students at his workshops that non-violent black protest would bring out the worst of the Deep South. They would be attacked for sitting down, beaten for marching, murdered for registering black voters. The road to change passed through pain and even martyrdom.