Presidential aspirant Rocky De La Fuente, who challenged President Trump in this year’s Republican presidential primaries and is continuing his campaign as a third-party candidate in November, saluted civil rights heroes John Lewis and the Rev. C.T. Vivian in a statement issued on Saturday.
“They gave voice to the voiceless and empowered the powerless,” said De La Fuente speaking from his home in San Diego.
De La Fuente’s statement continued:
“Although their life’s work was not completed, Congressman John T. Lewis and the Rev. C.T. Vivian, two civil rights icons who died yesterday, can rest in peace with the knowledge that the movement in which they were such powerful forces will endure – and that because of the tens of millions of people they inspired to join the fight for a more just world, their work will continue, and must continue.
“In that sense, although physically gone, they will always be present among us in spirit as millions more now grasp and take up their banner in the struggle to create a better America in which everyone – regardless of color, religious belief, sexual orientation, education or national origin – truly has unfettered access to America’s often elusive promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
“Their legacy is that they gave voice to the voiceless and empowered the powerless among our often-marginalized minorities. They dedicated their lives to the proposition that the creation of a culture of true and lasting equality in America, although still a dream, as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. declared almost six decades ago, is achievable if one not only believes wholeheartedly that it can be but also toils courageously and selflessly toward that goal – as both of these civil rights heroes did up until their final day on this earth.”
Lamenting their deaths as “a great loss to the nation,” Alliance Party national chairman Jim Rex — the last Democrat to win a statewide office in South Carolina — joined De La Fuente in eulogizing Lewis and Vivian, both of whom passed away on Friday.
“Their contribution to a more equal and just America cannot be overstated,” said Rex, a longtime educator and former South Carolina Superintendent of Education. “All of us must honor them by continuing the struggle to make America what they knew it could become for all of its citizens.”
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