Honoring a champion of Civil Rights Activism mourners in the u. S. Pay tribute to john lewis but will his body is laid to rest how will his legacy shape the black lives Matter Movement this is inside story. Of that welcome to the program im norah a life time civil rights leader in the u. S. Who inspired the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights act the last of the big 6 rights leaders led by Martin Luther king jr and hailed as the conscience of Congress John lewis is being remembered in a 6 Day Memorial Service that follows his journey through life the 17 congressman from georgia died of pancreatic cancer on the 17th of july at the age of 80 hell be laid to rest in a private. They report. A homecoming for an American Hero the body of civil rights icon john Lewis Crossing the Edmund Pettus bridge in his home state of alabama it was on this bridge in 1965 during a civil rights march by hundreds of activists that a Police Officer fractured his skull on a day that became known as bloody sunday the attack on him drew National Attention to the struggle for racial equality now this city is the final leg of the selma to montgomery Voting Rights trail and his coffin has retraced that journey. Where. Lewis was a Senior Member of the Congressional Black Caucus and a man known as the conscience of the congress he said his activism was anchored in a belief that good trouble could change the world john never gave hope his optimism is what he inspired in all of us were all infused with that optimism cant you hear him find a way to get in the way. Necessary. Lewis was arrested at least 45. 00 times throughout his political career and he kept returning to this bridge for the last 2 decades he led an annual march across it to highlight the struggle for Racial Justice on the 50th anniversary of bloody sunday in 2015 he made the trip with the nations 1st black president barack obama. And he came from a humble beginning all faiths and respect. So did my brother rob this is. It just a different. Hello the Memorial Service in troy alabama is the 1st in a week of tributes and services for the former congressman he will lie in state in the rotunda of the u. S. Capitol before being buried in atlanta since his death theres a renewed push to rename the Edmund Pettus bridge in honor of john lewis leo harding for inside story. Thank you lets bring in our guests now and send lois we have russian aldridge jr hes a member of the mysteries state house of representatives in providence we have tricia rose shes the director of the center for the study of race and ethnicity in america at Brown University and in baltimore we have Lester Spence hes a professor of Political Science an afrikaner studies at Johns Hopkins university of very warm welcome to all of you rushing to day were talking about a man who people called a titan lion how is john lewis influence you your life your career. Yeah i mean its sad times especially for young buck like myself that over the last couple years then get really involved activism and eventually you know like john lewis took that activism and turned it to politics and protest politics you know youve been especially going to black lives Matter Movement hes been very influential to me but i also say point you to a lot of other young folks out there you know that have been going out on a day to day basis trying to fight and push back against systematic racism and a lot of times we dont get that support who we dont get that understanding i encourage him and john lewis as always from the beginning you know and care is what were doing in the street continue to push on because once appointed time he was there you know when he walked across that bridge a selma when he was organizing as a young person with snake and eventually decided to move from outside to inside then to become a state legislator so you know this community this this region this state and this country is lou then like i say that line somebody to be an unapologetic and willing to push back and call out the systematic racism that not only did we see during his time when he was active but continuing to call it out to the eventually took his last breath so its im fortunate to be losing you know such a leader like john lewis who like for me especially a young activist in think louis that have been out in the streets but also serving in the state house of representatives you know to have somebody like him a legend ancestors you know we stand on great shoulders but you know john lewis he gave encouragement to young folks that sounds like you know he wasnt doing it the right things we can look back in history and see you know the path that were taken and the things that were doing in the good trouble protests that we did friday where we blocked the highway and honor john lewis is things that he would be proud of. That mean that more the process of going on in just a moment festival trisha he fought till the end as rushing said how will you remember john lewis. Well theres no question that he has been a sort of an ongoing force for good i think you know the most important thing for me is to look at the wide range of approaches to really taking a courageous on compromising attack on systemic racism and antiblack racism in general and so what i want people to remember is that he fought jim crow because jim crow was that eras one of that eras most significant ways of of sort of producing systemic racism and all of its effects but he didnt stop with that with the end of jim crow because that wasnt the end of racism one of the ways that we often miss remember civil rights leaders is that they exacted this fantastic victory and racism is over right but its not and so his consistent you know hard you know courage disciplined participation protest and legislative you know challenges all together really remind us that sometimes the the nature of the beast changes its stripes but its still a beast and so its not just fighting for one victory but its fighting for an entire set of changes that that sometimes look like theyre not going on at the same time. Says that the fight is ongoing john lewis very famously said you never become but i say you never become hostile but how hard do you think it was for him not to be able to see an end to the struggle. So if you think about it so john lewis spoke at the march on washington and the speech he was originally to deliver he was able to deliver and that original speech he argued that then Civil Rights Act they were thinking about passing didnt go hard enough on Police Brutality and didnt do enough to deal with the black vote in protecting the black vote so some 57 years or so some 50 years after that right we find yourself find ourselves still dealing with the issue of police Police Brutality and we still find ourselves dealing with. Voter suppression so it has it had to. Hit him particularly hard to know that the battles that he fought going back some 60 years in some ways. Became actually worse but the thing is one of the benefits of basically having a life of basically giving your life to struggle is you actually have a certain type of discipline to know that this is the life youve chosen and that this is the path thats going to and you have the ability to kind of go forward but most importantly you know teach generations after you that type of discipline and give people that type of time horizon to know that its not over yet so it really does seem to have a huge impact on the generations today john lewis was remembered by activists in the black lives Matter Movement of the group has been prominent in leading protests against racism and Police Brutality across the u. S. For 9 weeks since the killing of george floyd by a white Police Officer in minneapolis now one flashpoint at the moment is Portland Oregon was where federal forces tear gas protesters just on sunday night the situation there has been tense since washington deployed the Law Enforcement agents to the city present donald trump says he wants to protect government institutions both state and local officials have called for the federal forces to withdraw now rushing youve also been involved in protests in fact youve let them way you are in misurata what do you make of the response to them. Well you know it is it is what we are 5 boys over policing at its finest you know you have people that are taking to the streets now to the death adored boy but the reality is this isnt anything new that there was a misery back in 2014 when mike brown was murdered at the hands of Police Officers and young people took to the streets or it was back during Trayvon Martin 2012 or even as were talking about john lewis and the timing of the step that he like my brother says you know the things that up or against Police Brutality here we are again 60 some years later continuing another generation continuing to fight for change continue to push back against systematic racism i think which is thing in portland and what youre starting to see potentially maybe in chicago and weve been that threat that you know federal agents are coming into syria as well is a way to try to silence a way to try to silence the voices of individuals that are trying to do something right you know was one thing to talk about protecting property you know we can rebuild property and ill never you know condone in anything bring down or anything like that but we can rebuild property but we cant rebuild and bring back is a life that isnt taken and thats what people are saying that you know there is an injustice thats continued to take place or conversely were seeing people of color live and taken away or they dont come home for christmas and not come out at thanksgiving and theres no accountability and you have a president you know that rather than buy and try to have somebody like obama that want to really feel or figure out how do we create some healing and. Real solutions out of this and just a just as in going to a decade. Lester how do you see president stoking the anger thats on the streets at the moment i mean some people say that the arrival of federal forces may indeed be to cause more anger. Well is part of a broader political strategy. That goes back but in this current moment is really designed to kind of take peoples off of the pandemic that is tearing through american populations disproportionately black and brown and poor ones and then replace that those ideas replace you know basically are lying on with ideas of cities under siege that only he can protect so its basically an attempt to kind of keep him to keep him in office and actually if you think about it to justify what many feel is will be an attempt for him to steal an election so that i think about it ok do you agree with that tricia. Yes i do i i would add a couple of things one is that i think the specific use of unregulated unmarked federal agents who are functioning like death squads in central and latin america in the eightys. Is really designed to stoke profound levels of fear that people feel that they cannot depend on the police or the federal agents or the National Guard or you know to to sort of keep the peace in some general sense even though that hasnt been the case but to be unmarked to throw people in vans to disappear people to conjure the notion that you could be disappeared is is also a kind of parallel response to what we saw during you know the civil year of the civil rights in the disappearing of people all the time but the other thing its meant to do is not only stoke fear among protesters and leaders who are trying to fight for justice in the streets its also meant to provoke white fear because if one needs to treat cities as if theyre completely under siege that immediately conjures a tremendous sort of white fear which drove all of the anti. Social change movements that weve seen right its its fear of black people either taking over or their circumstances requiring an adjustment in white peoples lives frankly so theres 2 kinds of fear being mobilized the 1st one is just to terrorize activists and the 2nd one is to mobilize voters through the activation of white fear is it working is that a fair felt by phone black and white communities. Oh yeah i mean those are the i mean that the fear in the black community is the reason were in the streets but you know it tended to piggyback off of the comments that were said earlier this is you know the way that you drive out hate is with love and the way that you continue to keep divisive and hate in people are monitoring going on is with more fear and more fear much and thats the worst thing 45 is how hes using even in his t. V. s you know i think the t. V. Here in the state of missouri where he was and im sure its going in other states where he was using a t. V. Think you know is a novel one call and they said were sorry we wont be able to pick up right now because of the defunding of the foley you wont have any essential services for us robbery Home Invasion with another 5 days and try to play it as if you know joe biden is supporting the protesters so it is a huge fear of you know if we continue to let this happen in our country what 45. 00 is using is that you know we wont have law and order and that the war that they also like to use law and order and you know continuing to be tough on crime instead of being smarter on crime so it is trigger words and it reminds me a netflix. Show that they have the 13th amendment you know how its sort of a reagan law and order and mission and even you know they had trump in there as well so it is true fear mongering to try to sway the election because he hasnt been able to not just come out strong black lies a matter of the injustices that are taking place in this country but he has been a going to come out on the cold make 19 pandemic that has this fortunately a path that the people of color more than anyone else that says that adfa that machine was talking about i mean its so transparent isnt it does anyone really believe it. Yes so that used to be funny because it used to be a moment not that long ago where where in order for a campaign appeal for that to work it actually had to be coded like you would have to use a number range of coded language that would stand in for black and brown bodies but right after trump was elected those codes the naked appeals were actually as effective and in some cases even more effective than the coded appeals and yes there are people there are people particularly people in rural areas who find this credibly appealing. To said it seems that the administration the white house is intent on just fighting back is nobody looking seriously at these protests and what theyre demanding and considering Police Reform. Well you mean theres no one in the white house taking seriously what the protests are about and that theyre not considering well yeah well you know theyre not considering Police Reform because police the expansion the extraordinary economic expansion of Police Budgets escalation of those budgets the defunding of education the defunding of transportation the defunding of health care right the defunding of jobs programs all went into Police Budgets and so there is a significant strategy to quell social movements of all kinds you know and the immigration protests right the native american protests in terms of you know water and air and access to resources theres many groups of people including africanamericans who are suffering because of the redistribution upward and the consolidation of a kind of white supremacist policy so yeah hes not interested in in any effort to defund to defund the police its part of a broader strategy to over fund the police but you know when you ask the question you know is it working we its very important to remember that the whole development of sort of mainstream white consciousness is based on a fear of people of color its based on a fundamental distinction between groups of people based on race and a hierarchical arrangement based on race with whites on top and a fear that any changes to that would be a threat to their life livelihood and opportunities that are largely consolidated in their favor so you dont really have to have coded speeches last year said it can go either way but yes its very effective and i think theres an illusion both in the u. S. And abroad that that racism in extreme racism is a marginal factor that a small group of people believe whats more important to remember is. That whatever people are expressing publicly what theyre feeling in what i would call their lizard brain right there kind of core sense of threat is a whole different story and until we grapple with that and the ways in which its been stoked over a very long period of time the more were going to see these kinds of appeals and their successes i hope hes not successful but of course theres a tremendous fear that all of these efforts to quell Voting Rights and access to voting will allow him to steal the elect absolutely but its like that fear is a very important were just running a little bit of times i want to move on to that very important issue john lewis of the fought very hard for it and and one to a degree in the legislation in congress at the moment to restore the Voting Rights act that lou is championed in 165 the actress says give a little bit of background here in 2013 by the Supreme Court who voted that it was no longer relevant just very briefly regime why was it considered no longer relevant. Oh i think it is. You know what you started to see is a balance and power shift on the Supreme Court level where any time we make progress and i think someone that early i know john lewis you know the good in the bad of it you know he was able to live through a lot of these struggles at the same time you they were to also see how out and some aspects we havent moved that far every time you make progress. The ones that are in power the way that the system is working dont want to go that way so they try to roll back a lot of those positive things that are trying to make it more fair and just for everybody to be able to get both the right to be able to vote to be able to give them a voice in their community thats one reason why iran because i felt like there wasnt a voice in the neighborhood and now which is saying is its been good you got it before 45 was in office and its continuing to get it to make it harder for people to live not just the equal life but Equitable Life and their human rights that they should have no one should have to fight for them to have the right to vote when it is a human right that people should be able to have a voice in their community if the school board if a state representative if it is congress or even if its president you should have the right to be able to vote but when you can make people less powerless and take away their voice is more control more continuing to oppress certain individuals and to make sure that other folks you know have a strong voice and they do that in this country or in the communities or even the neighbor to how to help chris let the senate pa says this was stalled this new voter rights act a full the november elections. Its incredibly urgent but what id also point to though is trouble actually made changes in the post office and what it looks like is given the pandemic is a lot of our votes will probably be conducted by mayo if trumps policies stick in the post office that is arguably the decision of the photon Voting Rights act wont matter as much because itll be the post office that itself determines which votes are legible which votes arent excited and excited ok tricia what how do you see the november elections playing out so when the polls are looking good for joe biden but its anything of course can happen well yes theres a lot of evidence over the past 20 years of hanging chads and all kinds of complicated things but you know i think whats very important to remember is that every era theres a new set of strategies to limit the voting of poor people of people of color of of democrats of liberals and leftists pretty much right in varying degrees and so what were seeing now with the post Office Reference that was made what were seeing now with the kinds of redistricting district ing what were seeing now with barriers to Voter Registration ending same day voting early voting is being you know contested that the effort to open up and make democratic access to voting is being shut down because what the people want is democratic accountability they want justice they want a fair opportunity they want to be treated with dignity and thats what thats whats really at stake in this election ok its been really fantastic to get all of your views on john lewis and indeed the situation there in America Today thank you all very much for joining us rushing old Regina Tricia rose and Lester Spence. And thank you to you for watching you can see this program again any time by visiting our website this aljazeera dot com for further discussion to go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com ford slash a. J. Inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter handle is at a. J. Inside story from me laura kyle and the whole team here if i found out it was anchored i thank. Jump into the stream and julian on Global Community this generation will have to create its own democracy with social media on and will online be part of the debate let me put some you keep coming steve you when no topic is off the table is taking on all the systemic islands that people of color have suffered not only now but for decades we are going to be to transform lives the way he keeps human way to a business if were going to adapt to climate breakout this street on out is there another Early Morning another ceremony to bid health work as well. 29000 cuban doctors and nurses working in 59 countries around the world has confirmed cases of coronavirus increase so does demand for cuban medics medical services at the on its main export while western commentators assume cuba sends doctors mainly to expound influence experts on the Others Health system draw a different conclusion youre making a big sacrifice why are you willing to go. Because there are other people that need many people that is sick and dying and not just in right people shouldnt be dying when there are people who can help them. The us is the richest country in the world yet it still doesnt have a universal Health Care System all the all scream why not to influential republican lonny trend on Top Democrats say it in a special edition of head to head in 68500 miles a year we would save under medicare for all the studies this doesnt happen in canada or problems or spain will stray if people dont die because the confidential well they die because they cant get access to care head to head on aljazeera. I feel we understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the wound. To believe were going on a slightly early you know with this summary of aljazeera world news because the man you are looking at nudgee bras like in the past 4 hours has been found guilty on the 4 main charges against him to do with the one m. D. B. And bessel mint of the fund all money that hes been found guilty of specifically to do with 4. 00 charges hes been given 4 sentences to run concurrently one of 12 years 3 of 10 hes now just started talking in english lets have a listen to what he said. I thought that i would say i dont know speculate 1st you know you. Dont know that you know. No one would think. That that. Is a city. That will give him a new thing or put her. Into protests you just you know wind up