Selma Civil Rights March Still Vivid For US Rep. John Lewis
Forty-nine years after John Lewis and other marchers tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, memories of “Bloody Sunday” are still vivid in his mind. It was one of the defining moments of the civil rights era.
“We were beaten, tear gassed, trampled and chased by men on horseback,” said Lewis, a civil rights activist and Democratic congressman from Georgia.
Lewis — portrayed by the actor Stephan James in the historical drama “Selma” — told The Associated Press the film is “very powerful.”
“Selma,” directed by Ava DuVernay, is based on the 1965 marches in Alabama led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Lewis says the film’s release now is fitting after protests over events in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere.