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About three dozen people gathered in downtown San Jose on Friday evening to remember the lives of Rep. John Lewis and Rev. C.T. Vivian, two civil rights icons who died within hours of one another on July 17 — spawning an outpouring of grief across the U.S. and the Bay Area.
The vigil united a mix of students, faith leaders and local civil rights activists who first met up at San Jose City Hall before marching to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library and the Olympic Black Power Statue at San Jose State University.
John Lewis, the longtime representative for Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, has been hailed as a hero starting in the 1960s, when he was one of the “Big Six” civil rights leaders and a keynote speaker at the historic 1963 March on Washington. Rev. C.T. Vivian meanwhile organized sit-ins as early as the 1940s in Illinois, later becoming a close ally of King’s.
Both men died on July 17; Lewis at age 80 and Vivian at 95.
“It felt very important to recognize the lives and contributions of these two men not just to the Black community but to the wider country in terms of civil rights,” said organizer Sita Stukes, who has also led Women’s March events in San Jose and Sacramento.
As attendees holding “Black Lives Matter” and “Celebrate Black Joy” watched, speakers from local organizations like YouthHype and the Silicon Valley NAACP — along with California State Assemblymember Ash Kalra and San Jose residents — touched on topics ranging from police brutality to defunding law enforcement to their personal experiences with racism.
Stukes made a direct link between the civil rights leaders of past generations and the uprising that has swept across the country after the police killing of Minneapolis man George Floyd — including with massive protests that rocked San Jose in early June and prompted widespread scrutiny of San Jose Police Department tactics.
“It’s becoming very clear the youth are where the energy is in this movement,” she said.