The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
102-year-old delegate asks to meet Rep. John Lewis,
PHILADELPHIA — Georgia Rep. John Lewis had just finished speaking to Arizona delegates at the Democratic National Convention when a special guest wanted to see him.
Jerry Emmett, the 102-year-old honorary chairwoman of Arizona’s delegation, wanted to meet the Atlanta civil rights icon.
So Arizona delegate Janie Hydrick walked her, arm-in-arm, to meet Lewis.
Lewis had heard Emmett’s show-stopping announcement of Arizona’s delegate tally at Tuesday’s roll call vote, and he immediately embraced her. He told her: “I’m very proud of you.”
“It was a moment that will always stay in my heart,” Hydrick told us. “Jerry has been an Arizona icon for Democratic values for decades, and I have revered Congressman Lewis since his courageous fight for human and civil rights in the ’60s.
To see them together, physically embracing as their values and courage had been interlocked for so long renewed my commitment to the struggle.”
Emmett told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she never imagined she would get to meet Lewis.
“He has done so much to help do away with the tensions between Americans,” she said.
From their exchange, The Arizona Republic reported, Emmett and Lewis learned that her best friend is the widow of his best friend.
“Jerry started to cry ... and you could tell (Lewis) was really choked up about the whole thing, too,” Hydrick told the Republic.