Finding New Bravery

He walked into the room, and a boy next to me stood out of respect. There was a hush over the conference room. He shuffled onto the platform at the front of the Newseum banquet room in Washington D.C. He settled into the chair set out for him, folded his hands in his lap and waited.

“I would like to introduce Mr. John Lewis.”

A year ago, I did not know his name. I did not know that his hometown is Troy, Alabama. I did not know that when he was a teenager, a white man smashed a Coke bottle crate over his head in a race riot.

A year ago, Mr. Lewis could not bring me close to tears just by walking into a room. But this summer, Mr. Lewis changed the way I approach journalism.

I met Mr. Lewis this summer at the Al Neuharth Free Spirit Conference in Washington, D.C., hosted by USA Today. The conference was designed to bring together 51 of the most passionate student journalists in the country, and to teach us to love the first amendment.

We spent five days touring D.C. and hearing from speakers who taught us the importance of the first amendment. As a journalist, I thought I already knew why the first amendment was important. Yet those five days taught me how critical the first amendment is to a sustainable country.

A month before the conference in June, the first packet arrived on my doorstep. It was heavy and contained my inch-thick rules manual and agenda for the five day convention. Brimming with excitement, I ripped it open and scanned every single item.

My eye paused over Mr. Lewis’ name. He would be speaking about free speech alongside other civil rights activists. I had learned about Mr. Lewis in AP American History; he was a Freedom Rider and civil rights leader, one of the most important men in African American history alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I checked out his 800-page memoir from the library and devoured it in a week. The book focused on Lewis’ activism as he remained devoted to the beliefs of non-violence throughout the civil rights movement.

From his stories of sitting at lunch counters as white men poured mustard in his eyes, to his accounts of the March on Washington, I was in awe.

I couldn’t wait to meet Mr. Lewis. It didn’t matter that the Free Spirit Conference included guest speakers such as David Gregory and private tours of the Capitol building. I knew that the hour with Mr. Lewis would be the highlight of the trip.

To me, Mr. Lewis was something close to a saint — he fought for freedom, for liberty, for the first amendment. And he won.

I could probably write a novel about the ways that the experiences and the other students at Free Spirit affected me. But the day that we met Mr. Lewis touched me the most.

Most 17-year-olds don’t have a clue about Mr. Lewis’ sacrifices and accomplishments. But the 51 kids at Free Spirit did. The group offered more diversity than my Shawnee Mission East background had ever afforded. My dinner table that night consisted of a black boy from D.C.; a Tea Party conservative Pentecostal from Philly; a Japanese girl from Iowa; and a Muslim girl from South Dakota.

Despite our mixed backgrounds, every student understood that Mr. Lewis was one of the brave people who made this diverse collection of students possible.

He took the stage and spoke of quiet courage. He told us that we were born with bravery, with pride, with a duty to serve and protect the rights of others. He told us to use our words with brilliance and compassion.

When Mr. Lewis opened the room to questions, I stayed silent. Before, I had crafted dozens of questions, but I suddenly felt that I didn’t have a place speaking. So I listened.

I listened to my friends as they shared the racism and sexism they encountered in their hometowns. I listened to one girl explain how her school administrator read over every page of her newspaper, taking out anything that he didn’t agree with. I listened in awe as they asked for Mr. Lewis’ advice, and cried as they received his praise.

What I gained during that hour was a deep respect and gratitude for the lack of obstacles in my life. I’ve never experienced sexual harassment on account of my gender, or been insulted or teased for my ethnicity. At East, Mr. McKinney supports the free speech of The Harbinger, and our district is open to the free speech rights of Kansas student journalists.

I haven’t grappled with censorship, or racism, or a close-minded community. But I met 50 kids this summer who had; who stayed brave in the face of criticism and refused to abandon their rights to free speech.

Those kids impressed me and inspired me. They reflected the spirit that drove Mr. Lewis to protest the injustices of his time, and they proved that teenagers still have voices strong enough to change the nation.

I only have one picture with Mr. Lewis. He’s blinking and I’m mid-laugh, but it’s still one of my prized possessions.

Somehow, meeting Mr. Lewis and hearing my friends speak to him changed me. It made me realize that my passion for journalism needs a focus, and that focus should be the truth. It made me start to pay attention to the world around me.

Now, I read the news and try to understand it better. I keep in touch with the 50 kids from Free Spirit, and remind myself to use the freedoms I have wisely. And I look at the picture with Mr. Lewis. I hope that someday I will have the chance to be as brave as him.