Van Hollen Statement on the Passing of Rep. John Lewis

Today, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) released the following statement on the passing of U.S. Representative John Lewis: 

“My heart is heavy with the tremendous loss our nation faces with the passing of civil rights hero and my dear friend, Congressman John Lewis. John fought his entire life for us, getting into ‘good trouble’ to make the world more just for all.

“As John said, ‘the true work of social transformation starts within. It begins inside your own heart and mind.’ In that spirit, now more than ever, we must walk in his footsteps and ‘get in the way’ of injustice.  

“I will never forget traveling with John on three civil rights pilgrimages to Alabama, each time with one of my children. We marched with him and others, arm in arm, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where in 1965 he had been beaten bloody for marching for the right to vote. He showed us all the power of moral courage to bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice.

“We will miss you, John. May your legacy live on to inspire us to be better and do more in the pursuit of justice and equality in this country.”