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Fifty-Five years after nearly losing his life along the Edmund Pettus bridge, the life of civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis was celebrated as his body crossed the bridge for one final time on Sunday. A crowd gathered in Selma, Alabama for Lewis’ final crossing across the bridge to thank him for life-spanning efforts to bring civil and voting rights to Black Americans. Lewis was only 25 in March, 1965 when Alabama state troopers beat him, fracturing his skull, simply because he and other peaceful protesters were marching to Montgomery over voting rights. The images and coverage of that “Bloody Sunday” would lead to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After his final crossing Sunday, Lewis’ body lied in rest at the Alabama State Capital. CBS News reports that Lewis’ body will lie in state at the U.S. Capital in Washington, D.C. on Monday.
civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis Edmund Pettus bridge edmund pettus john lewis across edmund pettus bridge janet g john lewis edmund pettus bridge John Lewis Memorial
