The John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation has unveiled two new plaques to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the first Selma-to-Montgomery March.
On March 7, 1965, also known as “Bloody Sunday,” 25-year-old John Lewis and fellow Civil Rights leader Hosea Williams stood alongside 600 other marchers at the end of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.
After state troopers ordered the group to disperse, marchers were given two minutes to leave. Williams asked to have a word with the state troopers, and shortly thereafter, they were attacked and beaten, including Lewis, who suffered a skull fracture. He was one of almost 60 people treated for injuries at the local hospital, according to the National Archives.
That day played a pivotal role in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which allowed millions of disenfranchised Black Americans to vote.
Sixty years later, two plaques that take visitors through a timeline of the ‘Voting Rights Journey’ now sit at the front of the historic bridge.
It starts with the founding of the NAACP in 1918, ending with photos of Lewis with former President Barack Obama and another of former Vice President Kamala Harris at the bridge.
“It is our responsibility to make sure that our legacy is never forgotten,” Brother Chris V. Rey, the International President of Psi Beta Sigma Fraternity, said. “And as we prepare for the next generation of activists and leaders, we will do so knowing that we will never be turned around.”
