IN MEMORIAM: Leaders reflect on the life of Congressman John Lewis
THE CHICAGO CRUSADER — On Sunday, March 7, 1965 in Selma, Alabama, Lewis and fellow activist Hosea Williams led hundreds of marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. They were on their way to the state capitol fighting for the right to vote. On the other side of the bridge were the Alabama State Troopers on horses. After crossing the bridge, the troopers attacked marchers and beat Lewis with a club. He suffered a fractured skull that nearly killed him. The incident became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
IN MEMORIAM: John Lewis, an American Hero and Moral Leader Alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., Dies at 80
NNPA NEWSWIRE — The 1965 Selma march was led by John Lewis. Lewis was perhaps the last remaining voice of moral authority from the civil rights era. Voting rights remains a challenge in the U.S. Lewis was on the front lines of that effort which was resisted by white racists in the South attempting to stifle Black voting power for decades. Lewis’ efforts and the increase in Black voting registration of African Americans in the South changed U.S. politics forever. The power of Black voters was first seen nationally with the election of President Jimmy Carter in 1976.
