John Lewis accepts the PILLAR of AMERICA Award

Today, Vote By Mail America presented the first ever PILLAR of AMERICA Award to the Honorable John Lewis. We came to Washington, DC to honor a great American for his incredible contribution to ALL AMERICANS in the area of voting rights. We are also here because what John Lewis and many others (some who are still with us and more who are no longer with us) accomplished is under an attack of the most sinister and cynical kind. There are dark forces (think tanks, elected officials and even a political party) right here in Washington who are engaged in an ugly and Un-American enterprise to disenfranchise millions of us of our fundamental right to vote.

 

John Lewis accepting the PILLAR of AMERICA Award from Brent Scott of Vote By Mail America
 

When Vote By Mail America conceived the PILLAR of AMERICA Award it was with some trepidation. After all, who are we? We are not icons of the voting rights generation. None among our small ranks are noted or famed individuals. And as our organization was founded just five years ago we are not widely known in the voting rights community.

 

Hilary O. Shelton of the NAACP honoring John Lewis at the PILLAR of AMERICA Award ceremony.

We're average citizens. Ordinary Americans who experienced some problems with polling place voting (ex: sites opening too late and closing too early, long lines, traveling on election day, polling sites being frequently relocated) and wanted to do something for other Americans who experienced similar problems. Our primary intention was to educate the public of a safe alternative to polling place voting - you can vote by mail and here's how. Point your mouse, click on the Vote By Mail America map and obtain detailed information on how to vote by mail in your state. That was the most of what we were about. No, we are not icons of the voting rights generation like our honoree. And although we had some trepidation about creating the award, we were never in doubt as to who deserved it.



Nicole Austin-Hillery of the Brennan Center, honoring John Lewis

 

When we contacted known voting rights organizations and leaders for this award ceremony, the number one response we received was, who are you? I imagine that when they started out, several decades ago now, the establishment said of SNCC and Freedom Riders, who are you? I imagine they said of and to John Lewis, who are you? But to this nation's great credit, certainly begrudgingly, they did listen. While it took many years to come about, the doors of participatory democracy that John Lewis wouldn't stop pushing on were opened for all.

Jerry Vattamala of AALDEF (left) Judith Browne-Dianis

of the Advancement Project (center) Brent Scott of VBMA.

I grew up seeing the images of the marches, the sit ins, the boycotts, the dogs, the beatings, the water cannons and worse, the inhumanity that John Lewis and others were treated to. Those images make me at once ashamed and proud. I grew up hearing the speeches of John Lewis, Martin King and so many BRAVE others who wouldn’t just go away. They dared and they achieved. Today, we are not going to stand still, sit by and allow dark forces, dark money, cynical politicians and their operatives to stomp all over the voting rights achievements of a great movement that was fueled by a generation of dedicated people such as John Lewis.

The Honorable John Robert Lewis, Accepting the PILLAR of AMERICA Award presented byVote By Mail America

We say to the dark forces trying to undo, to take us back, to disenfranchise Americans of their hard won right to vote, "We're not going to let that happen." You see, it was worse for John Lewis. He faced contempt and scorn by a corrupt power structure and when he wouldn't just go away, he faced beatings, vicious dogs, water cannons and arrest and imprisonment. But he didn't cower. And we're not going to cower either. Not on this. Not on our rights. Not on the American triumph that was the voting rights movement. In the face of this new and ugly campaign to cheat, deny and steal the right to vote of Americans, we will if we have to walk in the footsteps of and stand on the shoulders of John Robert Lewis, a PILLAR of AMERICA.

By Brent Scott,

Executive Director of Vote By Mail America