My Friend John Lewis

To honor and celebrate the importance of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, we sat down with Leroy Ritchie , our Key Account Manager in Huntsville, Alabama, to talk about his lifelong friendship with American civil rights leader and politician John Lewis.

“Our cherished, 18-year friendship started in 2005 when I was in high school,” says Leroy. “I was part of an auxiliary program, and my mentor mentioned someone needed help moving. That someone was John Lewis.”

Born in the 1940s in racially segregated Alabama, John Robert Lewis rose to become a renowned American civil rights leader and politician, eventually holding a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1987 to 2020. John was best known for his brave involvement in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and for leading a landmark civil rights movement in America — the 1965 Bloody Sunday march that tragically ended in police brutality.

“The day I helped John move was the first day of our friendship,” says Leroy. “I helped him unpack his new home, and he opened up to me, sharing letters he received from Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, and other political figures who highlighted his heroic actions during the civil rights movement.”

John also shared his phone number with Leroy, who had no idea he would receive a life-altering call shortly after, with a special request: “Can we be good friends?” Since that day in 2005, the pair talked every week until John’s passing in 2020.

“I helped him around his house and drove him around Alabama. John took his first vacation in 34 years, and I went along. It was a four-day cruise full of jokes, laughter, and his loud snoring,” Leroy jokes. “I had the opportunity to see his human side. His authenticity was an inspiration.”

Leroy watched John love every person and creature he encountered, even when others didn’t show him the same respect. John believed in accepting people just the way they are. He even cared for stray neighborhood cats, and when he couldn’t, he would ask someone else to.

Over the years, he also taught Leroy the importance of acting bravely and speaking up when courage was difficult to muster. John helped Leroy effectively communicate his feelings, and it’s a lesson he still carries with him today. One of many valuable lessons.

“It is vital to know and understand where we came from, individually and as a country, so we do not repeat history,” says Leroy. “That’s one reason why it’s so important to remember pioneers, like John Lewis, who made a way for our future.”

Still present in spirit, John left behind words that Leroy will take with him wherever he goes:

“Every time we talked, I would ask him, ‘What are you doing?’, and John’s response, I believe, should be all of ours:

’Well, I'm getting in good trouble and necessary trouble.’”