By JM Rieger and Warren Rojas

Speaking at the Comic-Con International event in San Diego, Calif., on July 11, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., told the story of a Ku Klux Klan member who beat him in 1961 and returned years later to his Capitol Hill office to ask for forgiveness. “He said, ‘Mr. Lewis I’m one of the members of the Klan who beat you, and beat your seat mate. I want to apologize. Will you forgive me?’ And I said, ‘I accept your apology, I forgive you,’” Lewis told the several hundred people who’d gathered to hear him speak.