John Lewis' Drafts

What the revision process for the late Congressman's March on Washington speech can tell us about advocacy today.

We are now involved in a serious revolution. This nation is still a place of cheap political leaders who build their careers on immoral compromises and ally themselves with open forms of political, economic and social exploitation. What political leader here can stand up and say, “My party is the party of principles?” The party of Kennedy is also the party of Eastland. The party of Javits is also the party of Goldwater. Where is our party?

—from John Lewis’ undelivered first draft of his “March on Washington” speech (1963)

I just started reading a great book called Undelivered: The Never-Heard Speeches That Would Have Rewritten History, by Jeff Nussbaum. The premise is killer: these are newly-uncovered or little-known speeches that were written for or by major public and historical figures, but not delivered (for example: the speech Nixon would have given if he refused to resign).

The book starts with a major bang, an analysis of the late John Lewis’ speech at the March on Washington fo…