--- title: John Lewis Clarifies Bernie Sanders Civil Rights Comments description: He says he was not trying to "disparage his activism" canonical: https://time.com/4220554/john-lewis-bernie-sanders-civil-rights-comments-clarification/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-13T18:51:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:03:37.641Z article:section: Politics og:title: John Lewis Clarifies Bernie Sanders Civil Rights Comments og:description: He says he was not trying to "disparage his activism" og:url: https://time.com/4220554/john-lewis-bernie-sanders-civil-rights-comments-clarification/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc5179b3b8bfedaf0/69887d8f0a4a223ea29c85e2/john-lewis.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: John-Lewis og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Lewis Clarifies Bernie Sanders Civil Rights Comments twitter:description: He says he was not trying to "disparage his activism" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc5179b3b8bfedaf0/69887d8f0a4a223ea29c85e2/john-lewis.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rep. John Lewis Clarifies Comments on Bernie Sanders' Civil Rights Participation by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Feb 13, 2016 6:51 PM UTC  Rep. John Lewis arrives for a news conference at the DNC on Feb. 11, 2016. Rep. John Lewis arrives for a news conference at the DNC on Feb. 11, 2016.Tom Williams—Getty Images by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Feb 13, 2016 6:51 PM UTC Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis on Saturday clarified comments he made earlier this week questioning Sen. Bernie Sanders’ involvement in the civil rights movement. Lewis, who is supporting Hillary Clinton over Sanders in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, had said he never met Sanders. “In the interest of unity, I want to clarify the statement I made at Thursday’s news conference,” Lewis said in a statement from the Congressional Black Caucus PAC, which endorsed Clinton on Thursday. “I was responding to a reporter’s question who asked me to assess Sen. Sanders’ civil rights record. I said that. . . [_Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News_](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/john-lewis-clarifies-comments-bernie-sanders-civil-rights-era-participation-n518076?cid=par-time%5F20160213) John Lewis Clarifies Bernie Sanders Civil Rights Comments ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4220554/john-lewis-bernie-sanders-civil-rights-comments-clarification/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4220554/john-lewis-bernie-sanders-civil-rights-comments-clarification/"},"headline":"Rep. John Lewis Clarifies Comments on Bernie Sanders' Civil Rights Participation","datePublished":"2016-02-13T18:51:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:03:37.641Z","description":"He says he was not trying to \"disparage his activism\"","url":"https://time.com/4220554/john-lewis-bernie-sanders-civil-rights-comments-clarification/","keywords":["Bernie Sanders"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc5179b3b8bfedaf0/69887d8f0a4a223ea29c85e2/john-lewis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc5179b3b8bfedaf0/69887d8f0a4a223ea29c85e2/john-lewis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"John-Lewis","caption":"UNITED STATES - FEBRUARY 11: Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., and Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., behind him, arrive for a news conference at the DNC where members of the Congressional Black Caucus PAC endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, February 11, 2016. (Phot","creditText":"Tom Williams—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/bernie-sanders/","name":"Bernie Sanders"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4220554/john-lewis-bernie-sanders-civil-rights-comments-clarification/","name":"Rep. John Lewis Clarifies Comments on Bernie Sanders' Civil Rights Participation"}}]}] ```