In the News

PITTSFIELD — When Dennis Powell met U.S. Rep. John Lewis, he instantly experienced the humility of the civil rights icon.

The moment came in 2017, at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' graduation. After someone introduced Powell to Lewis as the president of the NAACP's Berkshires chapter, the congressman from Georgia thanked Powell for his service.

Powell chuckled.

"Are you kidding me?" he told Lewis, a Georgia Democrat. "You're the one who has done the service. I stand on your shoulders."

Powell recalled the interaction in an interview Saturday, one day after Lewis' death at age 80 from pancreatic cancer.

Throughout his life, Lewis advocated for racial justice, whether marching alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the streets of Selma, Ala., or pushing anti-discrimination legislation on Capitol Hill during his 34 years in Congress.

State Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield, also met Lewis at MCLA's graduation in 2017. In an interview, Hinds praised the towering legacy left behind by Lewis, noting that his impact is felt today as efforts to end systemic racism surge after the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis in May.

"Right now I'm conscious of his statements not long ago that, despite what he's been involved with in the civil rights movement, this is one of the biggest fights he's been a part of," Hinds said.

Lewis' last public appearance was June 7, at the recently renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, a site where protesters have gathered to decry racism in policing.

U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, the Massachusetts Democrat from Springfield who, for years, sat next to Lewis on the House Ways and Means Committee, joined in the chorus remembering his colleague.

"John Lewis spent his entire life working to make America a better and more just place," Neal said in a statement. "Serving alongside Congressman Lewis in the House of Representatives has been the honor of my life."