Watch Barack Obama & Rep. John Lewis Talk About Martin Luther King Jr.'s Legacy
Barack Obama and John Lewis honor MLK
Former President Barack Obama, Rep. John Lewis, and a panel of young students from Ron Brown College Preparatory High School in Washington, DC sat down for a conversation centered around the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The conversation was published on April 4th, the 50 year anniversary of MLK's death. The video premiered on Time Magazine.
READ:President Barack Obama Reveals His 2018 NCAA Bracket
During the convo, we hear Lewis, who was a vital member of the civil rights movement and a friend of Dr. King, detail what he was doing when he heard that Dr. King was assassinated; he was campaigning for Robert F. Kennedy in Indianapolis. (Tragically, Kennedy would also be assassinated only a couple of months later.)
READ:Former President Barack Obama Said He Cried After Dropping Malia Off at College
At another point, a student asked Obama and Lewis about the benefits and disadvantages of being an activist who is controversial.
Obama said:
If you are speaking on behalf of social justice, then by definition, there's going to be some controversy. Because if it wasn't controversial, then somebody would have already fixed it. Dr. King was controversial, but he studied and fought and crafted what he had to say. And he knew that when he spoke, he was expressing a truth as well as he could know.
Lewis added:
I've said to students, 'When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something, to say something, and Dr. King inspired us to do just that.
Check out the entire clip of the discussion below.