The conference is over; the last day was Tuesday, June 26th. Wednesday was a day that we had all to ourselves. We were finally well rested.
A library colleague we had met at the Coretta Scott King Awards Breakfast had offered to drive our bags back to Maine for us! (Thank you, Leslie!) Otrell and I each packed one suitcase of stuff for Leslie to drive home, but Tess and Kayla had 4 and 3 bags, respectively! That was in addition to our clothes, purses and essentials for the train and bus. Evidently, Leslie was shocked when she saw the 9 bags total that she would be driving back to Maine for us. (Thanks, again, Leslie!)
Otrell and I had an appointment to visit Congressman John Lewis at 10:30 am. Fortunately, after Library Day on the Hill, we were a somewhat familiar with how Capitol Hill worked. (I had made arrangements ahead of time for us to meet John Lewis, because he is one of my son’s heroes.)
Otrell was very nervous about meeting his hero, so in the morning I helped him prepare what he wanted to say. After talking about organization, content, and how to begin and end, he dictated what he wanted to say and I wrote it all down.
Hello. My name is Otrell McDaniel. I am 11 years old and I live in Portland, Maine. I am very honored to meet you. You’re one of my heroes, not only because of how you fought alongside Martin Luther King for Black rights, but because of how much you endured and how you continued to stay brave during Bloody Sunday and the Freedom Rides. How did you endure so much?
Several months ago, my family learned of a mentally handicapped Black man named Billy Ray Johnson and that he had been beaten by a group of young white people several years ago. We also learned that, following his beating, which left him more severely handicapped, mentally, he will have to live in a nursing home for the rest of his life, assisted by staff and unable to read. My sister and I, after reading the article, gathered material to send him a care package and, soon after, learned that it had arrived at the nursing home.
“In that same article, someone said that it was okay to treat a Black man like that, based on the color of his skin. It’s not.” That’s what I wrote in my letter to Billy Ray.
Do you think racism is still present in this country, and, if so, what can we do about it?
Would you mind signing this Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by John Lewis, Harcourt, 1998] to me?
Thank you for agreeing to meet with me.
We met Congressman Lewis is his Senior Chief Deputy Democratic Whip office (H-330) in the Capitol building. We had special “Official Capitol Business” nametags which turned from white to indigo when we walked out of the Capitol and back into the sun.
Congressman Lewis spent almost an hour (about 45 minutes) with Otrell, listening to him, answering his questions, showing him his personal photographs (framed and sitting on the mantle in his office) and telling him stories. He was patient, extremely kind and very generous with his very valuable time.
Here, Congressman John Lewis showed Otrell a picture of himself and his friend, Jim Zwerg who had just been beaten. “See the spots of blood that had dripped onto my jacket?”
Here, Congressman Lewis showed Otrell his picture of the “Big Six.” He named them right to left: Roy Wilkins; James Farmer; “You know this man.” [Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.]; A. Philip Rudolph; Whitney Young “A famous labor leader for the train porters;” and “a young John Lewis who still had his hair.”
Here, Congressman Lewis showed Otrell one of his photos of the March from Selma to Montgomery.
And here, standing in the window of his office, facing the Mall and the Lincoln Memorial, he recalled the March on Washington for Jobs and Equality, August 28, 1963. “I was the youngest speaker that day,” he reminisced. “I was sixth and Dr. King was tenth. … Of the ten people who spoke that day, I am the only one still alive.”
He described the mass of people gathered on the mall as a giant “sea of humanity.” “The police said that there were 250,000 people but I know it was more. … Children took off their shoes and climbed the trees in order to see. … And on the top step of the Lincoln Memorial, there is an inscription, ‘I Have a Dream:’ it is on the spot where we stood. … If someone had told me, then, that I would have an office here, across the mall, that I would be a Congressman here, I would have said that they didn’t know what they were talking about.”
Here, he showed Otrell another book about the Civil Rights Movement. He was looking for a picture of the “Sea of Humanity” he had described.
And there it was on the back of the book.
Congressman Lewis said that he was most proud of the first time that he was arrested [for civil disobedience] on February 20, 1960. “I was inspired.” Congressman Lewis told Otrell. “Dr. King inspired me to make trouble. It was the right kind of trouble. It was necessary trouble.”
What an inspiring experience!
Tess and Kayla took a well-deserved break. They read. They walked around our neighborhood, Georgetown. And they went out for coffee and tea.
Otrell and I spent the afternoon at the National Gallery, which Otrell didn’t want to leave after our hour and half visit.
We all went out to an Indian restaurant for dinner, the Taj Mahal. Then we took an evening walk to the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool. We saw the World War II Monument, an awesome stone structure and then, we walked through clouds of mosquitoes and black flies along the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Memorial.
We returned to our hotel at a reasonable hour and went to bed, again, at a reasonable hour.
