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Body of civil rights leader John Lewis crosses Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge for the final time

Published  July 26, 2020 7:29pm CDT
U.S.
Associated Press

SELMA, Alabama -  SELMA, Ala. (AP) -- The late U.S. Rep. John Lewis has crossed Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge for the final time as remembrances continue for the civil rights icon. A processional with Lewis' casket was carried Sunday across the bridge where he and other civil rights marchers were beaten 55 years ago on "Bloody Sunday," a key event in the fight for voting rights for African Americans. Lewis will lie in repose at the Alabama Capitol on Sunday afternoon.
   The late U.S. Rep. John Lewis will cross Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge for the final time Sunday as remembrances continue for the civil rights icon.
   A crowd began gathering near the bridge that 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 in the fight for voting rights for African Americans.
   State troopers and police officers stood along the barricaded sidewalks.
   Lewis' body will be carried across the bridge Sunday morning and then be brought to the Alabama Capitol in the afternoon to lie in repose.
   A series of events began Saturday in Lewis' hometown of Troy, Alabama, to pay tribute to the late congressman and his legacy. He will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol next week before his private funeral Thursday at Atlanta's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once led.
   A native of Pike County, Alabama, Lewis became involved in the civil rights movement as a young man.
   In 1965, he and other marchers were beaten in Selma. The news coverage of the event help galvanizes support for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
   Frank and Ellen Hill drove more than four hours from Monroe, Louisiana, to watch the procession.
   Frank Hill, 60, said he remembers, as an African American child, watching news footage of Lewis and other civil rights marchers being beaten by law enforcement officers.
   "I had to come back and see John Lewis cross the bridge for the last time," said Hill. It's funny to see the state troopers here to honor and respect him rather than beat the crap out of him," Hill said.
   Lewis, 80, died July 17 several months after he was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer.