John Lewis on Edward Kennedy

Congressman John Lewis, a hero of the southern lunch counter "sit-in's" as an activist in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), pays tribute to Senator Kennedy - and his brothers.

With Edward Kennedy's death we lose an important link to our past - those who not only remember but played a key role in the defeat of de jure racial segregation. It remains the case that few, if any, of those who now insist that the constitution does not permit taking race into account played any leadership role in the overthrow of the American system of Apartheid known as Jim Crow.