MILWAUKEE COUNTY

Barrett calls Trump's criticism of Lewis 'fake history' in remarks at annual King event

Meg Jones
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Kaprice Maxwell, a student at Milwaukee High School of the Arts, sings at the 33rd annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration at the Marcus Center.  The celebration featured art, writing and speeches around the theme "We shall overcome."

Mayor Tom Barrett sharply rebuked Donald Trump on Sunday, calling his diatribe against Congressman John Lewis "fake history" and demanding he apologize to Lewis.

At Milwaukee's annual Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebration Sunday afternoon, two days after the president-elect and Lewis engaged in a war of words following the civil rights leader's contention that Trump is not a "legitimate" president, Barrett called on Trump to apologize to Lewis.

"When the president-elect of the United States decides to use fake history, there's a problem," said Barrett, who served in the House of Representatives with Lewis from 1993 to 2003. "We, as citizens, should never allow real history to be replaced by fake history."

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On Friday, Lewis told "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd that he did not view Trump as a legitimate president because of allegations that Russia influenced the election. The next morning, Trump tweeted that Lewis, a Democrat representing Atlanta, Ga., "should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart.” Trump wrote, "... rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk — no action or results. Sad!”

Lewis and other Democratic representatives, including Mark Pocan, who represents Wisconsin's 2nd Congressional District, said they will not attend Friday's inauguration.

Barrett told several hundred people attending the King birthday commemoration at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts that he deplores both fake news and fake history. He then recited a short biography of Lewis' distinguished service, including Lewis' help in organizing the 1963 March on Washington that ended with King's "I Have a Dream" speech — Lewis is the last living speaker of the event — and his work with the 1964 voter registration project in Mississippi known as Freedom Summer.

The mayor recounted the march to Selma, Ala., in 1965 where Lewis and others were beaten and sprayed with tear gas as they walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Lewis suffered a skull fracture.

"Before he could be taken to the hospital, he appeared before television cameras calling on President Johnson to intervene in Alabama. Mr. Lewis bears scars from the incident on his head that appear to this day. This is not fake history. This is real history," said Barrett.

"We need to support Mr. Lewis. We need this nation to know who he is and why he is so important to our history," the mayor added. "I call on President-elect Trump to apologize to Mr. Lewis. It's the right thing to do."

The birthday celebration included music and winners of speech, art and writing contests. The crowd listened appreciatively as speech contest winners, some needing a stool to stand high enough to reach the lectern microphones, recited their prize-winning entries on the theme of "We shall overcome."

Among them was Ameen Atta, a ninth-grader at Salam High School in Milwaukee, who spoke about intolerance. Atta, who is Muslim, talked about people who call Muslims terrorists and tell them to go back to their home countries.

"For those who tell us to go home. Guess what? I'm already home. I'm American," said Atta.