A nation salutes John Lewis
Icon’s final trip across Edmund Pettus Bridge marks progress, challenges
SELMA – This time, the Alabama state troopers saluted.
The late John Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the final time Sunday in a triumphant celebration of his tireless fight for civil rights, often in the face of violent resistance.
Mourners cheered, sang and cried as a horse-drawn carriage carried Lewis’ flag-draped casket over the Alabama River and toward Montgomery.
Red rose petals marked the way on this final journey, covering pavement that was once stained with his blood when hordes of state troopers attacked him 55 years ago. Lewis and hundreds of marchers came to the bridge on Bloody Sunday in 1965 to demand an end to restrictions that blocked Black citizens from voting. Law enforcement beat the peaceful protesters with clubs and showered them with tear gas.
Still, Lewis and the others returned days later, marching from Selma to the Alabama Capitol in Montgomery to amplify their call for voting rights. Their work spurred national action led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act later that year. The sloping bridge in Selma became a symbol of the civil rights movement, and of Lewis’ perseverance. In 2015, on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, he walked the bridge arm-in-arm with former President Barack Obama.
Lewis’ work continued for decades after Bloody Sunday, culminating with a lengthy tenure representing Atlanta in the U.S. House of Representatives. He died July 17 from pancreatic cancer — his sprawling memorial tour reflected the scale of his impact. He was 80.
‘A lot more bridges to cross’
He was honored as a hometown hero Saturday at Troy University in Alabama, a campus where he was never allowed to enroll because he was Black.
Then, his funeral procession headed to Selma before retracing the route of his marches to Montgomery, where he lay in state at the Alabama Capitol. The funeral procession is expected to proceed to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., and then to Atlanta this week.
Lewis’ even-tempered leadership and persistence were emblematic of the civil rights movement that reshaped the Jim Crow South and laid the groundwork for generations of nonviolent protests against racism. Memorial services and vigils this weekend celebrated Lewis’ unyielding commitment to the cause of equal rights. Speakers and community members celebrated his legacy while urging a new generation of activists to step forward. Many said a new surge of activism surrounding Black Lives Matter and police violence underscored the urgency of the work.
“We have a lot more bridges to cross without John,” U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell said Saturday during a service at Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma.
Sewell, D-birmingham, and others called for renewal of the Voting Rights Act, some of which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013. Lewis’ example would lead the way, she said.
“John never gave up hope,” she said.
“His optimism is what he inspired in all of us. We’re all infused with that optimism. Can’t you hear him? Find a way to get in the way. Good trouble. Necessary trouble.”
Mourners gathered at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Sunday echoed that message. Local activist Sherrette Spicer, who is known as “Lady Freedom,” said Lewis’ final journey over the bridge was a symbolic turning point for the movement he led.
“He started some great work that must be finished. He lit some great torches that we cannot let die,” she said. “We must continue to take them to those dark places, to bring people out of darkness.”
Toyia Stevenson of Indiana brought her two sons, ages 12 and 14, to honor Lewis on Sunday. As her sons get more involved in protests against police brutality and systemic racism, she wanted them to understand the road map left behind by Lewis and other civil rights luminaries.
“It’s never the end,” Stevenson said. “Just because he died doesn’t mean his legacy died. His legacy lives on through us, and we have to protect it.”
Lewis and his resolve in the face of adversity
As an elder of the civil rights movement, Lewis sought to harness the power of his own story to inspire new activists. His final journey through Alabama doubled as a dramatic retelling of that story.
It marked the boy from Troy’s resolve in the face of adversity, retracing his path from a farm in rural Alabama to the heart of the civil rights movement — and to the halls of power in Washington, D.C. Law enforcement agencies that once fought Lewis’ efforts honored them now, escorting his body from Troy to Selma, and then to the state Capitol.
The journey pulled attention toward the pernicious and persistent racism Lewis battled all his life. His hearse wove past the sites of the first executive offices for the Confederacy, major slave trading hubs, lynchings and other painful reminders of the country’s racist past. And it passed landmarks like Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church and the Rosa Parks Museum, symbols of hardfought victories against that searing oppression.
The sound of sirens pierced the air as the procession made its way through downtown Montgomery toward the Capitol.
Inside, Gov. Kay Ivey helped place flowers in front of Lewis’ casket before several members of Alabama’s congressional delegation, including U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, circled the casket one last time.
Peggy Wallace Kennedy, the daughter of former Gov. George Wallace, made a surprise appearance at the intimate ceremony, emphasizing Lewis’ ability to win unlikely allies.
Wallace stoked racist fervor in Alabama as a political strategy in the 1960s, defying voting and civil rights for Black people. He condemned the marches from Selma to Montgomery and encouraged law enforcement to stop the marches in the lead-up to Bloody Sunday.
Kennedy has long been outspoken about grappling with her father’s legacy, saying he was on the “wrong side” of history. In 2019, Kennedy published a book about coming to grips with her family’s segregationist past. In it, she writes of watching the Bloody Sunday march and reacting with horror, then kept private, when she saw the beating of the man she would later learn was Lewis.
In the book, a chapter of which was published by WBUR, Kennedy recalls holding hands with Lewis during the 44th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, where she had been invited to speak.
In the book, she recalled this moment: “With his arm around me, John and I stepped to the bridge’s rail. ‘Peggy, crossing the bridge with you shows how far the human heart can go.’”
Unfinished fight for justice
Lewis knew the fight for justice was unfinished. In his final years, he embraced the Black Lives Matter movement and efforts to increase gun control to curb violence. For many who came to honor him this weekend, the end of his journey was a rallying cry. Sonya Powell came to Selma this weekend with her 75year-old mother, Lillie, and her 14-yearold son, Julian. She grew up in Lewis’ Atlanta district and wanted to pay her respects.
“For his entire, entire career he’s done nothing but take action,” Powell said Saturday.
Powell said a new wave of protests had captured her young son’s attention. Lewis could be his guiding light, she said. “The movement has really opened his eyes, and that has been great to hear. He wants to learn more about civil rights, to really understand it,” she said.
“Look around,” she said, standing outside Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church here in Selma that became a home base for Lewis and hundreds of protesters seeking voting rights in 1965.
“This is what working together looks like,” she said. “This is what America looks like.”
Contributing: Brian Lyman, Melissa Brown, Holly Meyer, Brad Harper and Kirsten Fiscus.