In 1965, activists in the civil rights movement organized to march in support of voter rights for African-Americans. They planned to walk from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, the state capital.
Over 600 people assembled, prayed and marched two-by-two through the streets.
Out front, John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at the time, was only 24 years old.
As over 525 marchers were leaving Selma, nearing the end of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, approximately 150 state troopers stood in their way and demanded the group disperse. After their warning, the troopers advanced and assaulted the protesters.
Lewis suffered a skull fracture. He was one of 68 protesters treated for injuries.
That day became known as Bloody Sunday.
Now Lewis, 76, is the U.S. Representative for Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, where he’s served since 1987.
On Wednesday, Nov. 2, Lewis will speak in the USC Ballrooms
at USF St. Petersburg about the importance of voting.
From noon to 1 p.m., the civil rights hero will hold a town-hall style Q&A event that is free and open to the public. The first 150 seats will be reserved for students.
This event came to be after Victor St. Arnauld, a senior environmental policy and science major, expressed concerns about students’ voter apathy to the members of the Florida Suncoast Sierra Club where he interns.
People ages 18-29 have the worst voter turnout numbers among registered voters, according to the Pinellas County’s Supervisor of Elections office.
The Sierra Club then reached out to Student Government officials and the USFSP Bishop Center for Ethical Leadership to coordinate the event.
Rep. Lewis will be joined by Charlie Crist, a former governor and Republican-turned-Democrat running for Florida’s 13th Congressional District seat.
In an article published by the Weekly Challenger, a news source for the African-American communities of Tampa Bay, Lewis endorsed Crist.
“Like President Obama, I’m proud to stand on the right side of history with Gov. Charlie Crist,” Lewis wrote.
Defending the right side of history is something Lewis is known for. During the civil rights movement, he played a crucial part in the nonviolent protest movement. Helping to organize lunch counter sit-ins and protest marches, Lewis followed the same path as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Lewis’ history is brimming with examples of his steadfast nature against oppression.
He was a part of “the Big Six,” consisting of prominent civil rights leaders who organized a march on Washington D.C. for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. The youngest of the speakers, Lewis gave a rousing speech to over 200,00 people in attendance.
“We all recognize the fact that if any radical social, political and economic changes are to take place in our society, the people, the masses, must bring them about,” said Lewis.
That event culminated in the iconic moment when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.
In 1970, after the assassination of John F. Kennedy and Dr. King, Lewis left the SNCC to become director of the Voter Education Project. As director, he helped to register and educate millions of minority voters.
Since becoming the representative for Georgia’s 5th District, which includes parts of Atlanta, Lewis has become one of the most respected members of the House. He’s taken hardline stances on healthcare reform, and significant measures to provide aid to the poor and improve education.
After the shooting in Orlando in June of this year, Lewis staged a sit-in on the Congressional House floor to advocate voting for gun reform. This measure drew over 170 lawmakers but no legislative action. Lewis was not discouraged.
He later tweeted, “We got in trouble. We got in the way. Good trouble. Necessary Trouble. By sitting in, we were really standing up.”
To effectively tell his story to today’s students, Rep. Lewis created a new trilogy of graphic novels, MARCH, which “brings a whole new generation with him across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, from a past of clenched fists into a future of outstretched hands.” – President Bill Clinton
Sierra Club Victory Corps will raffle off a set of the entire collection of 3 volumes of MARCH to a lucky student following Wednesday’s town hall with Rep. Lewis and Gov. Crist.