SELMA, Ala. — The late U.S. Rep. John Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., for the final time Sunday as remembrances continue for the civil rights icon.
A crowd began gathering near the bridge that became a landmark in the fight for racial justice when Lewis and other civil rights marchers were beaten there 55 years ago on “Bloody Sunday,” a key event in the fight for voting rights for African Americans.
The body of Congressman John Lewis arrives at the Alabama Capitol.
(Julie Bennett/AP)
Advertisement
A horse-drawn hearse retraced the route through Selma from Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where the 1965 march began. As the wagon approached the bridge, members of the crowd shouted, “Thank you, John Lewis!” and “Good trouble,” the phrase Lewis (D-Ga.) used to describe his tangles with white authorities during the civil rights movement.
Some crowd members sang the gospel song “Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Stayed on Jesus.” Later, some onlookers sang the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome” and other gospel tunes.
The hearse paused atop the bridge over the Alabama River as the cicadas sang in the summer heat. On the south side of the bridge, where Lewis was beaten by Alabama state troopers in 1965, family members placed roses that the carriage rolled over, marking the spot where Lewis spilled his blood and suffered a head injury.
Advertisement
As a military honor guard lifted Lewis’ casket from the horse-drawn wagon into an automobile hearse, state troopers, including some African American ones, saluted Lewis.
1/33
Former President Obama addresses mourners during the funeral for Rep. John Lewis at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
2/33
Former President George W. Bush speaks during the funeral for Rep. John Lewis at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
3/33
Former President Clinton speaks during the funeral for Rep. John Lewis at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
4/33
A woman stands during the funeral for Rep. John Lewis at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
5/33
A military honor guard moves the casket of Rep. John Lewis into Ebenezer Baptist Church for his funeral in Atlanta. (Brynn Anderson / Associated Press)
6/33
Mourners stand outside Ebenezer Baptist Church during the funeral of Rep. John Lewis in Atlanta. (Brynn Anderson / Associated Press)
7/33
Samuel Lewis, brother of John Lewis, attends the congressman’s funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
8/33
Tybre Faw was moved by the reading of John Lewis’ favorite poem, “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley, during the funeral service for the late congressman at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
9/33
Mourners attend the funeral service for Rep. John Lewis at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
10/33
Civil rights leader the Rev. James Lawson speaks during the funeral service for Rep. John Lewis at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
11/33
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms sits with her husband, Derek, during the funeral for the Rep. John Lewis at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
12/33
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus surround the flag-draped casket of civil rights pioneer Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who died July 17, as he lies in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, Monday, July 27, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool via AP) (Jonathan Ernst/Pool Photo)
13/33
Members of the U.S. Capitol Police honor guard stand near the flag-draped casket of Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., on Monday in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (Matt McClain/Pool Photo)
14/33
The flag-draped casket of the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., is carried by a joint services military honor guard up the steps of the East front steps of Capitol Hill in Washington Monday. (Susan Walsh/Associated Press)
15/33
The hearse with the flag-draped casket of Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., drives on 16th Street, renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza, near the White House in Washington, DC.. ( Alex Brandon/Pool Photo)
16/33
People pay respects to Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., as he lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda, Monday in Washington. (Shawn Thew/Pool Photo)
17/33
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks to family members in the Rotunda of the U.S., Capitol, during a service for Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. Monday in Washington. (Matt McClain/Pool Photo)
18/33
John-Miles Lewis touches the casket of his father, the late Rep. John Lewis, D-GA, a key figure in the civil rights movement in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, DC. (Matt McClain/Pool Photo)
19/33
Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-NY, raises his hands as Amazing Grace is played during the ceremony for the late Rep. John Lewis in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, DC. (Matt McClain/Pool Photo)
20/33
Supreme Court associate justice Sonia Sotomayor pauses at the flag-draped casket of Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., as he lies in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington Monday. (Shawn Thew/Pool Photo)
21/33
A man places flower petals on the Edmund Pettus Bridge ahead of Rep. John Lewis’ casket. (Brynn Anderson/AP Photo)
22/33
Fraternity members sing in front of the casket of the late Rep. John Lewis, during a service celebrating “The Boy from Troy”. (Brynn Anderson/AP)
23/33
The body of Congressman John Lewis arrives at the Alabama Capitol. (Julie Bennett/AP)
24/33
With the Capitol Dome in the background, U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington in 2017. (Lawrence Jackson / Associated Press)
25/33
John Lewis, then chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, is beaten by an Alabama state trooper as the police break up a civil rights voting march in Selma, Ala., with billy clubs and violence March 7, 1965. Lewis’ skull was fractured. (Associated Press)
26/33
Leading a 50th anniversary march in Selma, Ala., in 2015, President Obama holds hands with Rep. John Lewis and Amelia Boynton Robinson, who were both beaten on “Bloody Sunday” in 1965. (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)
27/33
President Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rep. John Lewis during a 2011 ceremony in the East Room of the White House. (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)
28/33
Rep. John Lewis poses for a portrait ahead of the 2017 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Lewis spoke at the festival about “March,” a graphic memoir trilogy based on the civil rights movement and Lewis’ life in Alabama. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)
29/33
Rep. John Lewis is arrested by U.S. Capitol Police during a 2013 demonstration calling for the House to take up immigration reform legislation. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images)
30/33
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), center, and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), right, co-chairs of the civil rights task force of the Congressional Black Caucus, join other members of the House to express disappointment in the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision that a key part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)
31/33
Rep. John Lewis speaks to gun control activists outside the Capitol as House Democrats stage a 2016 sit-in on the House floor to demand a vote for gun control measures days after a massacre at an Orlando, Fla., nightclub. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)
32/33
Rep. John Lewis speaks in 2013 during the 50th anniversary commemoration of the March on Washington. (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)
33/33
Rep. John Lewis stands in front of a quote of his in the Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library. (Mark Humphrey / Associated Press)
Lewis’ body will be brought to the Alabama Capitol in the afternoon to lie in repose.
A series of events began Saturday in Lewis’ hometown of Troy, Ala., to pay tribute to the late congressman and his legacy. He will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol next week before his private funeral Thursday at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once led.
Advertisement
A native of Pike County, Alabama, Lewis became involved in the civil rights movement as a young man.
In 1965, he and other marchers were beaten in Selma. The news coverage of the event helped galvanize support for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Rep. John Lewis of Georgia embraced a message of love and unity, but also discomfort and disruption, without which there can be no true social justice.
Frank and Ellen Hill drove more that four hours from Monroe, La., to watch the procession.
Frank Hill, 60, said he remembers, as an African American child, watching news footage of Lewis and other civil rights marchers being beaten by law enforcement officers.
The casket of Rep. John Lewis moves over the Edmund Pettus Bridge by horse drawn carriage during a memorial service for him.
(Brynn Anderson/AP)
“I had to come back and see John Lewis cross the bridge for the last time,” Hill said. “It’s funny to see the state troopers here to honor and respect him rather than beat the crap out of him,” he added.
Lewis, 80, died July 17, several months after he was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer.
