“The late U.S. Rep. John Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, for the final time Sunday as remembrances continue for the civil rights icon. The bridge 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 that helped galvanize support for the passage of the Voting Rights Act.” (AP News)
Both sides praise Lewis and his legacy:
“Lewis was beaten 40 times by cops, state troopers, or hostile mobs; he spent 31 days in Mississippi’s notorious Parchman Farm prison. He was the first chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee [SNCC]… His fellow Georgia congressman Newt Gingrich was wont to remind conservative, white audiences that Lewis bore literal scars from the fight for civil rights — rights that were promised in the post–Civil War amendments, but took a century, and the efforts of the brave, to make real. R.I.P.” (The Editors, National Review)
“Lewis was considered one of the greatest student sit-in leaders by the sheer power of his example. He kept showing up at the front of protests no matter how many times he was assaulted. The power of that kind of persistence sometimes gets lost when people talk about that era. People overestimate the power of a great speech. They think the movement was powered by Aaron Sorkin-like moments: Impossibly eloquent leaders unfurling brilliant speeches skewering their opponents…
“But King's ‘I Have a Dream Speech’ wouldn't have mattered much if the movement didn't keep up the pressure of demonstrations through campaigns in Mississippi the next year and Alabama the following year. It wouldn't have mattered much if President Lyndon Johnson didn't use all of his legislative cunning to steer the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act… Persistence is more important than eloquence. Lewis proved that.” (John Blake, CNN)
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