Democratic Rep. John Lewis said Thursday he sometimes feels like “taking a bullwhip” to people in order to make them care about civil rights.

“It doesn’t matter whether they’re black, or white, Latino, Asian-American or Native American. When you see something that’s not right, not fair, not just, you have an obligation to do something, to say something. They’re just too darn quiet. I really wanna use some other words sometimes,” Lewis told the audience of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Town Hall on Civil Rights in Washington, D.C.

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“I believe in the philosophy and the discipline of nonviolence, but sometimes I feel like taking a bullwhip and just saying to people, ‘You get your butt up. You go out there and do what you must do,'” the Georgia congressman continued.

Lewis added that young people must become “fighters” and “warriors” for the cause of civil rights.

Activists “just need to be radical” and “extreme” in order to fight racism in the United States, Lewis opined.