John Lewis, 1940-2020, Two Personal Recollections
Sherwin Markman and Gren Whitman • July 21, 2020
~Sherwin Markman:
A few years ago, while attending a civil rights conference in New York, I had the pleasure of hearing Congressman John Lewis speak. Afterwards, he and I chatted in the vestibule, during which he asked if I wanted to join him on his return trip to Washington, to which I most happily said yes. John had a car and driver and together with his assistant and my dear friend and former Pulitzer Prize winner and Washington Post reporter, Nick Kotz, we drove to Pennsylvania Station to catch the train home. Thus began one of the most fascinating three hours that I’ve ever had the opportunity to experience—an uninterrupted period where I had the honor of basking in his warmth and wisdom as we sat opposite each other and talked.But that amazing late afternoon journey began with an extraordinary empathetic walk through Pennsylvania Station, for, as I moved at his side, huge numbers of African Americans appeared, all of them expressing in their looks and murmured words an incredible devotion to this amazing man. I felt the wave of love that washed over him and, inadvertently, it reached me as well. It had substance and weight and I felt as if I could reach out and touch it. It was beautiful. Only once before had I experienced the tendrils of such devotion, and that was when, on Lady Bird Johnson’s last Christmas trip to her beloved Texas ranch, I accompanied her as she walked through an adoring crowd. Now, on this day, that feeling of love was of multiplied intensity.
There followed those several hours of intimately listening to John Lewis favor me with his recollections and beliefs and, without inhibition, answer all of the questions that poured out of me. For me, since I had worked for President Johnson, it was also gratifying to hear the congressman give equal praise to Johnson and Martin Luther King for the great civil rights legislation of the 1960s.
In total, that trip and those hours with John Lewis remain a very special memory for me, and I am devastated by the untimely loss of a great man I considered my friend.
Reprinted with permission, Chestertown Spy, "My Hours with John Lewis" by Sherwin Markman, July 17, 2020.
~Gren Whitman:
John Lewis is one of my heroes. Among his denim-clad peers in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, he always wore a suit and tie—always. His slight speech impediment, a slurred lisp, made you listen closely to him. Although many, if not most, SNCC folk tended to belittle MLK (for example, calling him “De Lawd”), John revered King and would never join in the organization’s cultural irreverence and disrespect for King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference organization.
My wife and I journeyed to Atlanta in 1965 to work in SNCC’s national office, which is where I met and worked with John, then SNCC’S national chairman. Soon after our son was born, we were forced out of where we were living. On hearing this, John immediately invited us to move into his apartment with him; in fact, he offered us his bedroom while he slept on the couch. We did not have a crib for Chris, so he went into one of John’s bureau drawers. This arrangement continued until we found an apartment in DeKalb County, just west of Atlanta.
Shortly after arriving in Atlanta, I suggested to John that SNCC should consider issuing a statement against the Vietnam War, and to become the first national civil rights group to do so. Without hesitation, John said, “Yes!” and asked me to draft a statement. After I’d composed the draft, he and I edited it, and sent it out for review by the whole SNCC staff. After it was approved at an all-staff conference that November, John himself called a press conference and issued the statement in January 1966. It caused quite a commotion.
The point of this is: John didn’t need to be persuaded for an instant to have SNCC publicly oppose the Vietnam War. He knew that this might cost the organization some support; even so, he wasn’t dissuaded or daunted. Without his early, enthusiastic, and full support, SNCC’s anti-war statement would never have moved forward.
John Lewis was moral, courageous, steadfast, kind, and with his impish humor, yes, always just fun to be with, and we will sorely miss this extraordinary American citizen and hero.
~Sherwin Markman was a special assistant to LBJ until 1968. He went on to work as a senior trial lawyer for Hogan & Hartson until 1992. He is the author of a novel, “The Election”, and the editor of “Lyndon Johnson Remembered: An Intimate Portrait of a President.”
~As a community organizer, journalist, administrator, project planner/manager, and consultant, Gren Whitman has led neighborhood, umbrella, public interest, and political committees and groups, and worked for civil rights and anti-war organizations.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
Right now, Congress is working on a fast-track bill that would make historic cuts to basic needs programs in order to finance another round of tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.
The House Agriculture Committee recently voted, along party lines, to advance legislation that would cut as much as $300 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program, helping more than 41 million people in the U.S. pay for food. With potential cuts this large, it helps to know who benefits from this program in Maryland, and who would lose this assistance. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities compiled data on SNAP beneficiaries by congressional district, cited below, and produced the Maryland state datasheet , shown below. In Maryland, in 2023-24, 1 in 9 people lived in a household with SNAP benefits. In Maryland’s First Congressional District, in 2023-24: Almost 34,000 households used SNAP benefits. Of those households, 43% had at least one senior (over age 60). 29% of SNAP recipients were people of color. 15% were Black, non-Hispanic, higher than 11.8% nationally. 6% were Hispanic (19.4% nationally). There were 24,700 total veterans (ages 18-64). Of those, 2,200 lived in households that used SNAP benefits (9%). The CBPP SNAP datasheet for Maryland is below. See data from all the states and download factsheets here.
Apparently, some people think that the GOP’s “big beautiful bill” is a foregone conclusion, and that the struggle over the budget and Trump’s agenda is over and done. Not true. On Sunday night, the bill — given the alternate name “Big Bad Bullsh*t Bill” by the Democratic Women’s Caucus — was voted out of the House Budget Committee. The GOP plan is to pass this legislation in the House before Memorial Day. But that’s not the end of it. As Jessica Craven explained in her Chop Wood Carry Water column: “Remember, we have at least six weeks left in this process. The bill has to: Pass the House, Then head to the Senate where it will likely be rewritten almost completely, Then be passed there, Then be brought back to the House for reconciliation, And then, if the House changes that version at all, Go back to the Senate for another vote.” She adds, “Every step of that process is a place for us to kill it.” The bill is over a thousand pages long, and the American people will not get a chance to read it until it has passed the House. But, thanks to 5Calls , we know it includes:
Let's talk about our Eastern Shore Delegation, the representatives who are supposed to fight for our nine Shore counties in Annapolis, and what they actually got up to this session.
For the first time in recent memory, Virginia Democrats have candidates running in all 100 House of Delegates districts — a milestone party leaders and grassroots organizers say reflects rising momentum as President Donald Trump’s second term continues to galvanize opposition.
The 447th legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly adjourned on April 8. This End of Session Report highlights the work Shore Progress has done to fight for working families and bring real results home to the Shore. Over the 90-day session, lawmakers debated 1,901 bills and passed 878 into law. Shore Progress and members supported legislation that delivers for the Eastern Shore, protecting our environment, expanding access to housing and healthcare, strengthening workers’ rights, and more. Shore Progress Supported Legislation By The Numbers: Over 60 pieces of our backed legislation were passed. Another 15 passed in one Chamber but not the other. Legislation details are below, past the budget section. The 2026 Maryland State Budget How We Got Here: Maryland’s budget problems didn’t start overnight. They began under Governor Larry Hogan. Governor Hogan expanded the state budget yearly but blocked the legislature from moving money around or making common-sense changes. Instead of fixing the structural issues, Hogan used federal covid relief funds to hide the cracks and drained our state’s savings from $5.5 billion to $2.3 billion to boost his image before leaving office. How Trump/Musk Made It Worse: Maryland is facing a new fiscal crisis driven by the Trump–Musk administration, whose trade wars, tariff policies, and deep federal cuts have hit us harder than most, costing the state over 30,000 jobs, shuttering offices, and erasing promised investments. A University of Maryland study estimates Trump’s tariffs alone could cost us $2 billion, and those federal cuts have already added $300 million to our budget deficit. Covid aid gave us a short-term boost and even created a fake surplus under Hogan, but that money is gone, while housing, healthcare, and college prices keep rising. The Trump–Musk White House is only making things worse by slashing funding, gutting services, and eliminating research that Marylanders rely on. How The State Budget Fixes These Issues: This year, Maryland faced a $3 billion budget gap, and the General Assembly fixed it with a smart mix of cuts and fair new revenue, while protecting working families, schools, and health care. The 2025 Budget cuts $1.9 billion ($400 million less than last year) without gutting services people rely on. The General Assembly raised $1.2 billion in fair new revenue, mostly from the wealthiest Marylanders. The Budget ended with a $350 million surplus, plus $2.4 billion saved in the Rainy Day Fund (more than 9% of general fund revenue), which came in $7 million above what the Spending Affordability Committee called for. The budget protects funding for our schools, health care, transit, and public workers. The budget delivers real wins: $800 million more annually for transit and infrastructure, plus $500 million for long-term transportation needs. It invests $9.7 billion in public schools and boosts local education aid by $572.5 million, a 7% increase. If current revenue trends hold, no new taxes will be needed next session. Even better, 94% of Marylanders will see a tax cut or no change, while only the wealthiest 5% will finally pay their fair share. The tax system is smarter now. We’re: Taxing IT and data services like Texas and D.C. do; Raising taxes on cannabis and sports betting, not groceries or medicine; and Letting counties adjust income taxes. The budget also restores critical funding: $122 million for teacher planning $15 million for cancer research $11 million for crime victims $7 million for local business zones, and Continued support for public TV, the arts, and BCCC The budget invests in People with disabilities, with $181 million in services Growing private-sector jobs with $139 million in funding, including $27.5 million for quantum tech, $16 million for the Sunny Day Fund, and $10 million for infrastructure loans. Health care is protected for 1.5 million Marylanders, with $15.6 billion for Medicaid and higher provider pay. Public safety is getting a boost too, with $60 million for victim services, $5.5 million for juvenile services, and $5 million for parole and probation staffing. This budget also tackles climate change with $100 million for clean energy and solar projects, and $200 million in potential ratepayer relief. Public workers get a well-deserved raise, with $200 million in salary increases, including a 1% COLA and ~2.5% raises for union workers. The ultra-wealthy will finally chip in to pay for it: People earning over $750,000 will pay more, Millionaires will pay 6.5%, and Capital gains over $350,000 get a 2% surcharge. Deductions are capped for high earners, but working families can still deduct student loans, medical debt, and donations. This budget is bold, fair, and built to last. That’s why Shore Progress proudly supports it. Click on the arrows below for details in each section.
