John Conyers was my friend and hero. When I was 16, I heard his voice for the first time. He was advocating for a holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was a warm, persuasive voice that made such a clear case for us to recognize this day. I never dreamed I would meet him. I didn’t know that voice and those words would affect my life deeply and we would share that mission together, years later.

That mission, the King Holiday, is a symbol of John Conyers’s triumphant legac...y. He helped the people do what they had never done before—demand and get a national holiday. That was John’s victory for us.