Choose two paragraphs of Obama’s Eulogy speech for John Lewis and discuss ONLY what you have chosen and identified. You can choose one section/paragraph from Obama’s speech, and one from the additional readings if you think it is complimentary and allows you to extend your thoughts and ideas.
Here are a few potential follow-up questions:
What was so great about the section of the text you chose?
Does the author/writer play with language? If so, how?
How does it relate to the larger themes of the story?
How does it relate to larger political and racial tensions that we have been grappling with as a country?
And while Lewis “brought this country a little bit closer to our highest ideals” Obama said, the member of Congress knew the “march is not over.” He pointed out how institutions like policing and the current administration still undermine equality and perpetuate violence: “Today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans. George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. We may no longer have to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision, even undermining the postal service in the run-up to an election that’s going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don’t get sick.”