Civil Rights Icon Rep. John Lewis Coming to Michigan’s 9th District to Rally Support for Andy Levin

(STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich.) - U.S. Representative John Lewis (GA-5) announced today that he will travel to Michigan on Saturday, July 28 to support Andy Levin’s campaign for Congress in the 9th District – and to boost voter turnout throughout the district.

The civil rights icon is a champion of the rights of all people, universal health care, common sense gun reform and a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which has also endorsed Levin.

John Lewis was one of the “Big Six” leaders of the Civil Rights movement, an architect of the 1963 March on Washington, Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, an organizer of Freedom Summer, and much more. Despite more than 40 arrests and multiple beatings, most famously on “Bloody Sunday” on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Lewis remains to this day devoted to the philosophy of nonviolence. He was elected to the U.S. House in 1986.

Rep. Lewis issued the following statement:

One of my greatest pleasures and most cherished tasks is helping develop and empower new generations of leaders to carry on the struggle for justice. One such leader I want to make sure is sitting beside me in the 116th Congress is Andy Levin.

I know Andy will not just vote for but will help lead the fight for Medicare for All, great public education and economic opportunity for all of our people, sensible gun reform to stop the carnage in our streets and schools, and more. How do I know this?

Because Andy has been a freedom fighter since his college days, when he helped fight against the South African apartheid regime and organized his school to join a boycott of a cap and gown manufacturer whose workers were on strike.

When Andy devoted himself to helping nursing home workers organize for a better life, he was carrying on the work of those who fought for economic justice for all people during the civil rights era of the 1960s.

When Andy put himself at risk to investigate and report human rights abuses in Haiti and China, he was showing that the fight for justice is global.

When Andy helped organize the AFL-CIO’s campaign to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to give voice and power to American workers, which we passed in the House, he demonstrated that collective action is necessary if regular people are to win a measure of prosperity and dignity.

When Andy helped train over 160,000 Michigan workers for new careers during the Great Recession, he shone a bright light on one of the key ingredients of a just economy.

And now, as a clean energy leader who has helped arrange financing for over $21 million of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects across Michigan, he is proving that a sustainable economy is better for everyone, creating good new jobs while tackling global warming.

Andy Levin is the real deal. I look forward to visiting Michigan’s 9th District to support his candidacy and to help turn the tide from 2016, when too few citizens exercised their precious right to vote, with disastrous consequences for our nation and world. I hope voters of the 9th District will join me in supporting Andy Levin.

Time and location of the event will be announced soon. To learn more please visit, www.AndyLevinForCongress.com.