If there was a celebrity at Saturday’s massive Atlanta march it was the congressman from Atlanta’s now notorious fifth district.
John Lewis has faced criticism in some quarters since declaring Donald Trump's election as president illegitimate. But the 76-year-old Democrat received an enthusiastic embrace on Saturday from supporters in his hometown for the Atlanta March for Social Justice and Women.
“I know something about marching,” the civil rights icon told the crowd of thousands at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. “We have a moral obligation to fight and never lose hope. We must vote like we never have before.”
Lewis took the stage Saturday to excited chants of "Fifth District," which has become something of a rallying cry for residents since Trump, in a tweet, labeled it "crime infested" and 'horrible."
The Trump-Lewis feud erupted after Lewis said in an interview that he was boycotting Trump’s inauguration, suggesting his election wasn’t legitimate because of concerns Russian hacking. Trump took to Twitter to blast Lewis as “all talk” and slam his Atlanta-based district as a “falling apart.”
Trump's comments drew a backlash from many who noted that Trump was wrong about Lewis' district, which includes a wide and diverse swath of Atlanta including the upscale neighborhood of Buckhead, the headquarters of corporate giant Coca-Cola and and schools like Georgia Tech. They also excoriated the then-president elect for attacking a civil rights leader once beaten by police at a civil rights march in Selma.
But others suggested Lewis might be out of line.
"I think that he (Lewis) made a mistake in saying it, and I think the president-elect made a mistake in responding," said former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, another leader in the city's civil rights community..
None of that seemed to matter on Saturday as Lewis fired up the crowd before they embarked on a march to the state Capitol.
“We’re going to march in a minute. We’re going to pick em up and put ‘em down. We’re going to send a message,” he said.
Lewis said the group has a “moral mission and mandate to agitate.”
“You look beautiful. You look fine and you’re ready to agitate.”
“You can’t sit on the side,” he continued. “I want to thank you for standing up, speaking up, getting into trouble. Necessary trouble.”
“Thank you, John,” the crowd chanted.
Someone yelled “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Lewis replied.
“Sometimes you have to turn things upside down to turn things right side up,” he said. “We cannot afford to be silent.”
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