LAST MARCH OF A HERO
Lewis borne across Selma’s bloody bridge
Rep. John Lewis crossed the infamous Edmund Pettus Bridge for one final time Sunday.
The late congressman’s casket was carried slowly in a horse-drawn carriage across the span in Selma, Ala., where a 25-year-old Lewis helped lead with Martin Luther King Jr. a voting-rights march in 1965 that police violently dispersed.
Lewis’ son, sister and two brothers accompanied the carriage, which dramatically ascended the sloped bridge where Lewis’ skull was fractured by police.
The bridge filled 55 years ago with tear gas and bloodied protesters was strewn Sunday with red rose pedals.
The dramatic memorial was part of a six-day celebration of Lewis’ life, which began Saturday in his hometown of Troy, Ala. It will continue in Washington on Monday, as a procession escorts his casket to the Capitol to lay in repose.
A private event for members of Congress will be followed by public viewings of the coffin for four hours Monday night and two hours Tuesday evening. The viewings will be outdoors due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The longtime Democratic congressman for Atlanta died July 17 at age 80 from pancreatic cancer. His remains also will be taken to the Georgia State Capitol before they are interred.
The marathon remembrance of Lewis follows two months of national unrest over the killing of George Floyd by Minnesota police. One of his final public outings was to visit a protest zone north of the White House where DC Mayor Muriel Bowser painted “Black Lives Matter” on the street.
House Democrats said Sunday they will seek to harness Lewis’ legacy to pass a controversial voting-rights bill, which they will rename Monday in honor of Lewis. There’s also a campaign to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge, which is dedicated to a Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader.
The bill that will bear Lewis’ name passed the Democraticheld House 228-187 in December. It would increase federal supervision of state voting policies by creating a new formula for jurisdictions that require pre-clearance of election policy changes.
The bill hasn’t received a vote in the Republican-held Senate, and the White House issued a veto threat, arguing the bill may be unconstitutional and gives too much power to the federal government.
The US Supreme Court in 2003 struck down a similar law, finding it unconstitutional because it used decades-old data.