The Honorable John R. Lewis

U.S. Representative of Georgia (January 3, 1987-July 17, 2020)

On Sunday, March 7, 1965, John R. Lewis led hundreds of marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, to oppose voting restrictions against African Americans in the South. When the peaceful protestors refused to disperse, state troopers advanced on foot and on horse, brutally assaulting the crowd using tear gas and batons. Lewis suffered violent blows to the head from a trooper. Congress’ swift but overdue legislative response to what became known as “Bloody Sunday” produced the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.

For years afterwards, Lewis returned to Selma on his own to reflect on the protest march. He formalized these visits while serving as a Representative from Georgia by leading an annual congressional pilgrimage to the Edmund Pettus Bridge and other civil rights landmarks in Alabama. In this oral history—conducted months before the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday—Lewis recalls the violence inflicted on him and others that day and the event’s historic role in changing American democracy. He describes the partnership with the Faith and Politics Institute, which has organized the annual trip since 1998, and the reason he considers the visit a pilgrimage. He discusses the personal importance of returning year after year.

Lewis recounts other experiences of the 1960s civil rights movement as well, including the march from Selma to Montgomery following his assault in 1965, the signing ceremony for the Voting Rights Act, and the day Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. He details his involvement in Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign and how it ultimately led to his own run for Congress. In this interview, Lewis explains the effect his time in the movement has had on his approach to legislating. He asserts that civil disobedience—what he called “good trouble” throughout his congressional career—has a critical place in the political process and expresses hope that his fellow lawmakers understand the importance of protest when they visit Selma.

This interviewee appears in the following projects: The Long Struggle for Representation: Oral Histories of African-Americans in Congress, Bridging History: Selma and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 Documentary, and Institutional Interviews.