Rebellious Democrats staged an all-day sit-in on the House floor Wednesday to demand votes on gun-control bills, shouting down Speaker Paul Ryan when he attempted to restore order as their protest stretched into the night.
The effort with more than 200 Democrats, including Washington senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, was led by Georgia Rep. John Lewis.
Lewis, a veteran civil rights leader who spoke at the Washington March of 1963, asked what Congress has done, then answered his own question: "Nothing. We have turned a deaf ear to the blood of innocents. We are blind to a crisis. Where is our courage?"
As Lewis was back in the national spotlight Wednesday, some locals recalled the day he spent time in Seattle learning more about an injustice done to African-American soldiers here in the 1940s.
In August 1944, an Italian POW was lynched at Fort Lawton, which is now Discovery Park in Magnolia. The POW’s death was blamed on 43 African American soldiers even though the prosecutor had evidence that likely would have cleared the men.
Decades later, reporter
[ Jack Hamann and his wife, Leslie ]
, spent years researching the case, digging through dozens of unindexed boxes at the National Archives. The documents and research led to a book, “
[ On American Soil ]
,” that showed a white military policeman likely killed the POW – not the African-American soldiers, including the 28 found guilty of rioting and were dishonorably discharged.
[ The book led to a 2005 bill ]
by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) to review the case, and in 2007 the U.S. Army Board for Correction of Military Records ruled unanimously that prosecutor Leon Jaworski – later of Watergate fame – made an “egregious error” in the Fort Lawton case.
In 2008, President George W. Bush authorized interest on back pay to those soldiers involved in the Fort Lawton incident. Later that year in a ceremony at Discovery Park a top Army leader told the families on behalf of his comrades, “
.”
Lewis, who in 1959 helped organize the first lunch-counter sit-in and who helped lead the Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965, didn’t make it to that ceremony, but was given a tour by Hamann in October 2010.
“I had heard about this story and I wanted to get a feel for the place,”
[ Lewis told Nicole Brodeur of the Seattle Times ]
on the tour. “Growing up, I never heard a thing about it.”
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Lewis came to the site that day with McDermott. On Wednesday, McDermott was among the Democrats led by Lewis demanding a vote on the gun-related measures.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) dismissed the protest as "nothing more than a publicity stunt," and in an interview with CNN, made clear there would be no vote.
C-SPAN broadcast live video streamed on Periscope and Facebook from lawmakers' accounts after main cameras were blocked by Republican leaders.
Democrats posted the Capitol's main telephone number, which was overwhelmed, and urged constituents to call and request a vote. They also encouraged tweeting under the hashtag #NoBillNoBreak.
The sit-in continued Wednesday night.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, in Washington D.C. for campaign-related events, tweeted a picture of himself standing on the House floor Wednesday, writing he was there "to thank House Democrats for standing against gun violence."
As the efforts of Lewis and other Democrats continued, people in Seattle recalled his 2010 visit to Discovery Park. Hamann recalled how Lewis asked many insightful questions about the 1944 court-martial with his baritone voice.
“He's a man with a calm but distinctive moral authority,” Hamann said.
Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.