From the obituary of Congressman John Lewis:
“He once described an incident when, as a young man, he was beaten bloody by members of the Ku Klux Klan after attempting to enter a ‘white waiting room.’”

“Many years later, in February of ’09, one of the men that had beaten us came to my Capitol Hill office — he was in his 70’s, with his son in his 40’s — and he said, ‘Mr. Lewis, I am one of the people who beat you and your seat mate’” on a bus, Lewis said, adding the man said he had been in the KKK. “He said, ‘I want to apologize. Will you accept my apology?’”

After accepting his apology and hugging the father and son, the three cried together, Lewis remembered.

‘It is the power in the way of peace, the way of love,” Lewis said. “We must never, ever hate. The way of love is a better way.’