Honoring John Lewis

This monument stands near Selma to honor John Lewis, who was just twenty-five years old on the day that made him a national figure. On March seventh, nineteen sixty-five, Lewis helped lead some six hundred peaceful marchers out of Selma and onto the Edmund Pettus Bridge, walking toward Montgomery to demand the right to vote. On the far side, state troopers ordered them to disperse, then waded in with clubs, whips, and tear gas. The day became known as Bloody Sunday, and Lewis suffered a fractured skull.

The images shocked the nation and helped push the Voting Rights Act into law that same year. This monument carries two phrases Lewis lived by, get in the way, and when we pray, we move our feet.