An idea for honoring John Lewis, "the boy from Troy": Invest in young people

Over the past week, the world has bid farewell to civil rights icon U.S. Congressman John Lewis, with all the grandeur his life and legacy deserve. A final journey across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. A procession through DC’s Black Lives Matter Plaza. The first Black lawmaker to lie in state in the Capitol. And a whole lot of talk of “good trouble,” Lewis’s own mantra and his parting advice to a new generation of activists. John Lewis will forever be remembered for his awe-inspiring life of service and leadership in pursuit of justice and equality. But let’s also remember him as “the boy from Troy.”

In January, NPR ran a 3-minute StoryCorps conversation between Lewis and his friend Valerie Jackson in which Lewis shares the story of how his civil rights journey began. While in high school in his hometown of Troy, Alabama, he heard about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the bus boycott in Montgomery. At age 17, he decided to write a letter to King. King not only responded, he sent him a bus ticket to Montgomery. When Lewis arrived, King asked, “Are you the boy from Troy?” And the rest is history.

In another beautiful On Being interview with Krista Tippett from 2013, Lewis shares that as a kid, he asked a lot of questions about the segregation he saw in his community. The adults in his life, good and courageous people themselves, told him, “That’s the way it is. Don’t get in the way. Don’t get in trouble.” But steeped in what he read in the Bible and learned in church, and deeply aware of what was happening in his community and country, he chose otherwise. Thank God he did.

In February, innoFaith partnered with National United Methodist Church and the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy to host the Interfaith Youth Innovators Summit. A group of nine high school students from different faith traditions came together for a weekend of interfaith engagement with their peers, of learning design thinking techniques, of developing or advancing their own ideas for change. And they blew us away. With energy and optimism, they worked on their ideas for addressing gentrification, reproductive rights education, interfaith dialogue, and more. Not only that, they passionately brought their personal stories and faith backgrounds to the conversation, eager to share practices from their own traditions and learn from each other.

And we know they are not the only young people in our midst with ideas for changing the world. So we ask, are our faith communities creating space for young people, equipping them with both sacred wisdom and an awareness of the world, and then investing in them and their ideas? If not, let’s start. We can’t think of a better way to honor Congressman Lewis.

We don’t know what would have happened if King never responded to Lewis or sent him that bus ticket. Persistent as he was, probably Lewis still would have emerged as a leader in the movement. But maybe his path would have taken a different turn. Maybe “don’t get in trouble” would have found a way to keep him in its fold. We’ll never know. But we do know that investing in a young person and their ideas and leadership will change the world.

All photos from the Interfaith Youth Innovators Summit, February 2020.

If you’re interested in designing an Interfaith Youth Innovators Summit for your community, reach out to us at info@innofaith.org.

And if you are or know a young person who wants to make a difference, check out our friends at Peace First, where young people can access digital resources, mentorship, funding, and a global community of peers to help them create change.