Bloody Sunday memorial will honor civil rights giants together with late Rep. John Lewis

John Lewis timeline of a good troublemaker

John Lewis was known as the good troublemaker and conscience of Congress.

SELMA, Ala. (AP) – – This year’s commemoration of a pivotal moment in the struggle for the right to vote for African Americans will honor four civil rights giants who lost their lives in 2020, including the late US Representative John Lewis.

The organizers announced plans for the March 7 celebration on Monday, which will be performed differently this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rev. Joseph Lowery, CT Vivian, Attorney Bruce Boynton and Lewis are honored during the 56th Annual Memorial of Bloody Sunday, the day in 1965 when civil rights activists were brutally beaten on Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., arm in arm with Reverend Ralph Abernathy, leads the protesters as they begin the Selma-Montgomery Civil Rights March from Brown’s Chapel Church in Selma, Alabama, on March 21, 1965. (LR) an unidentified priest and man, John L. ((Photo by William Lovelace / Daily Express / Hulton Archives / Getty Images))

The four will be honored at the Martin & Coretta King Unity Breakfast on March 7th in Selma. Breakfast is held as a drive-through and people stay in their cars during breakfast while speakers address the crowd from a stage.

There will then be a “slow ride” across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and wreaths will be placed in honor of the four, former Senator Hank Sanders said.

Sanders said the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t allow the four to have grand funerals, with the exception of Lewis, who was honored with events in Georgia, Alabama and Washington DC. The former Georgia congressman was beaten on Bloody Sunday.

“This picks up the people who have been on the battlefield for a long time, from the 1950s all the way through their lives … Those of us who are still alive, especially the young, have to face the challenge and move forward because there is still so much to do, “said Sanders.

Footage of the Bloody Sunday beating helped build support for the passage of the 1965 Suffrage Act. This year’s commemoration comes as some states are trying to reverse expanded voting access and email access to voting and efforts to restore a vital part of the voting rights have failed on the Voting Rights Act, according to which states with a history of discrimination have failed had to obtain approval from the federal government for changes to the voting procedure.

Bernard LaFayette, who worked with all four, will speak over breakfast, Sanders said.

While much of the annual Bridge Crossing celebration this year will be virtual, Sanders wanted events that people could safely attend.

Lowery, a charismatic and ardent preacher, is often viewed as the dean of civil rights veterans and chaired the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Vivian began organizing sit-ins against segregation in the 1940s and later teamed up with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1965 Vivian led dozens of protesters to a courthouse in Selma, confronted the local sheriff on the courthouse steps and told him protesters should register to vote. The sheriff responded by punching Vivian in the head.

Boynton was arrested for walking into the white section of a racist Virginia bus station and setting off a chain reaction that ultimately helped overturn Jim Crow laws in the south. Boynton denied his conviction and his appeal resulted in a US Supreme Court decision prohibiting segregation of bus stops and inspiring the Freedom Riders.