Upon learning that the executive committee of the Democratic Party of Georgia had selected her to succeed John Lewis as the representative from Atlanta’s 5th Congressional District, Georgia State Senator Nikema Williams (shown) said:
Nobody could possibly fill the shoes of Congressman Lewis. His leadership and fighting spirit is needed now more than ever in this country.
I believe it is imperative that we choose someone with a long track record of fearlessly standing up for what is right and someone who will take on the endless attacks on our rights that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing from the Republican Party.
With that statement, she gave notice that little if anything is going to change: The voice from the 5th District of Georgia will continue to be noisy, shrill, and demeaning to Republicans, especially the president.
As one of 131 people vying to take John Lewis’ place, Williams campaigned on Zoom featuring a framed picture of Lewis’ mugshot from his arrest during a Nashville sit-in during the 1960s. She declared herself to be “a student of the John Lewis school of politics,” which “practiced the art of getting into ‘good trouble.’”
This was a phrase no doubt familiar to members of the executive committee. In 2016, Lewis made a presentation at the U.S. Department of Transportation where he quoted Martin Luther King, Jr.: “When you believe in something, you have to stand up for it. You have to speak up and fight for it. Get in the way. Get in good trouble. Persist. Insist. Make a little noise.”
Williams, a likely shoo-in in November in the heavily Democratic district, has all the right credentials. Before becoming a state senator in 2017, she was the vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood. She currently works alongside Alicia Garza at the National Domestic Workers Alliance, described as an “advocacy group” for the “rights” of domestic workers. Garza, it will be remembered, is a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter network.
She supported Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns and was recognized as one of his top bundlers in 2012, having raised more than $50,000 for his campaign that year.
She also has an arrest record, as did Lewis. She was one of 15 people arrested during a protest against the handling of the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election at the Georgia State Capitol.
Lewis’s communist connections and affiliations stretch back to the very beginning of his start in politics, and it’s this record that Williams hopes to extend and expand.
In 1963, Lewis was named chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which had been infiltrated by members of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). In 1965, he received the Eugene Debs Award, named for the founder of the Socialist Party of America. That same year he wrote an article for the CPUSA’s propaganda magazine Freedomways, lauding Paul Robeson (who had been a member of the Communist Party), calling him an “Inspirer for Youth.”
Lewis continued to write for the CPUSA, contributing an article to its People’s Weekly World in August 2003 about the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
In 2013 he took to the streets to push for legislation allowing illegals to apply for U.S. citizenship, joining seven other radical Democrats from Congress. He blocked traffic on Independence Avenue during rush hour along with Keith Ellison, Charles Rangel, and others of similar radical communist bent.
In 2015, CPUSA leader Gary Dotterman described Lewis as “my hero, my comrade, my inspiration and my friend.”
In 2016, during president Trump’s presidential campaign, Lewis said: “I’ve been around a while and Trump reminds me so much of a lot of the things that George Wallace said and did.… Sometimes I feel like I am reliving part of my past. I heard it so much growing up in the South.… I heard it so much during the days of the civil rights movement. As a people, I just think we could do much better.”
In November 2017 Lewis introduced Senator Bernie Sanders to those attending the national conference of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Lewis boycotted Trump’s inauguration, declaring him a “Manchurian Candidate” whose victory at the polls had been facilitated by Russia. He said:
I think the Russians participated in having this man get elected, and they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.
I don’t plan to attend the inauguration.… I think there was a conspiracy on the part of the Russians, and others that helped him get elected….
I don’t see the president-elect as a legitimate president.
Lewis also had nothing but contempt for the Constitution, violating his oath of office repeatedly, earning a lifetime score on The New American’s Freedom Index, which rates congressman on their fidelity to the Constitution, of just 26 out of 100.
Citizens can expect nothing better from Lewis’ replacement come November.
Photo: AP Images
An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American, writing primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at [email protected].
