Spotify Offers John Lewis Memorial Speeches -- Bush, Clinton, Obama, Pelosi and More -- on its Podcast Platform

In Collaboration with C-SPAN, Spotify Studios has made available select speeches from the memorial service on July 30 of civil rights leader John Lewis to users of its audio platform.

"As we remember this civil rights icon and the legacy he left behind," says podcast consultant George Witt, "It's noteworthy that Spotify collaborated to bring these cultural touchstone speeches to amplify meaningful audio experiences that inform and unite listeners during pinnacle moments such as this"

The speeches on Spotify can be found here and include the speeches of President Barack Obama, Civil Rights Leader James Lawson, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush.

"I've come here today because I, like so many Americans, owe a great debt to John Lewis and his forceful vision of freedom," Barack Obama, the country's first Black president, said in the eulogy at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, which has long been a haven for the Black freedom struggle.

Lewis was a key organizer of the 1965 voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. During a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, a state trooper viciously beat Lewis and fractured his skull. The event became known as Bloody Sunday.

"I thought I was going to die on that bridge," Lewis said  in an upcoming CNN documentary.

These marches were crucial elements of the fight to secure the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a watershed piece of federal legislation that protects against racial discrimination in voting.

In his eulogy, President George W. Bush remarked, "From Troy to the sit-ins of Nashville, from the Freedom Rides to the March on Washington, from Freedom Summer to Selma, John Lewis always looked outward, not inward."

Spotify continues to add substance, texture and relevance to its podcasting platform with audio presentations such as this one.

"These speeches on Spotify with collaboration from C-SPAN," begins George Witt, "energize the ears of Americans to visualize what this country can be one day."