"At age 19 he had helped organize the first lunch counter sit-in"

[ProSense]

John Lewis on Pettus Bridge, 45 Years Ago Today

The scars are there--not metaphorical or emotional ones, though these must be there, too--but physical scars, rough gashes long ago sealed over the ragged furrows that poured out a young man's blood onto the hot Alabama asphalt 45 years ago this March.

<...>



At age 19 he had helped organize the first lunch counter sit-in, in 1961 he was involved in the Freedom Rides to exercise the right—confirmed in a Supreme Court Decision (Boynton v. Virginia of 1960), that affirmed the illegality of racial segregation in public transportation, and in 1963 he had spoken at the March on Washington.

Even at this young age he had handled the brutality and violence with the same response that he would later give throughout his life: with prayer, nonviolence, and words of reconciliation and hope.

<...>



He was in Selma on the invitation of Amelia Boynton, who had contacted the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) and SNCC after being thwarted for years by local law enforcement in her attempt to register Black voters.

A young Vietnam veteran had recently been killed by Alabama state troopers, and there would now be a march to the state capital to ask Governor George Wallace to protect Blacks’ voting rights.

On March 9, the marchers left their gathering place at Brown Chapel, and crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama river.



John Lewis on Pettus Bridge, 45 Years Ago Today

[goclark]

1. And last week he was verbally assaulted in DC

:cry:


America ~ ?.

[Jennicut]

2. And Glenn Beck had the audacity to question his civil rights background.

This man was beaten for his standing up for civil rights and still reacted without violence toward others.

[goclark]

3. Glen is a finished fool!

Aren't there some FCC rules for these people?

Is the FBI doing anything?

How long does it take for them to show any results?

It would seem to me that in one week, they should be able to calm this mess down but it just keeps getting worse.

Cell phones ( video/photos) and caller ID should help us to locate some of the other Rove Elves that are coming out of the woodwork.

The public should be able to identify something/someone by now.

No one saw anyone shoot a bullet threw a window??

Someone should have been arrested!

[Kind of Blue]

4. There are no words to describe

the 360-degrees of hate this dear man has seen.
KnR and Thanks for posting.

[Top Cat]

5. K&R

[boppers]

6. ...and he keeps on fighting.

This war isn't over. I hope it will be, before I die, which is why I keep fighting.

I was a "bus kid", one of the chosen (ha-ha) moved to a different part of the city to help squash segregation, and saw, with my own eyes, how bad it was, and still is.