Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Karen Bass (D-Calif.) paid tribute to the late civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) Sunday, describing him as “rock solid.”
“He was such a calm figure but a calm figure that was rock solid,” Bass said of Lewis, who died Friday at the age of 80, on ABC’s “This Week.”
Bass went on to describe how Lewis had insisted she call him by his first name.
“He said to me ‘Karen, would you please just call me John’ and I said ‘No, Mr. Lewis, I’m never going to call you John,’” Bass remembered, adding “the nation lost an icon, the House lost the most respected member… and the CBC lost a member of our family.”
Bass advocated for restoring the Voting Rights Act as a way of honoring Lewis’ political legacy.
“What we have to do is live up to his legacy, we need to continue that fight for social justice and the first thing we need to do is pass the Voting Rights Act and get it signed, because we’re very concerned about the election coming up and voter suppression, and the fact that people are going to have to vote in dangerous conditions,” Bass said.
“They need to be able to vote from home, and I know that if he was still with us, he would be leading that fight,” she added.