DOVER, NJ – The newly remodeled East Blackwell Street Bridge in Dover has been renamed in honor of Congressman and civil rights leader John Robert Lewis who died last year at the age of 80.
Lewis played a key role in the historic 1966 Washington March when he was still in his twenties, and later in the 1965 Suffrage March that Britannica said departed from Selma.
When demonstrators tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge across the Alabama River, they were “brutally” attacked by state troops with tear gas, lashes and batons. The incident, known as “Bloody Sunday” sparked a wave of protests against racial justice across the country.
“It is particularly fitting that we are here today with another bridge to celebrate the life of the Congressman,” Mayor Carolyn Blackman said at a ceremony that unveiled a plaque commemorating Lewis. “We have to start dedicating these honors and future generations must one day google his name and find out what John Lewis did.”
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter named Lewis head of a federal volunteer agency, and in 1986 he was elected a Georgia Congressman. He died in July 2020 after battling pancreatic cancer.
The John Robert Lewis Bridge connects two sides of the Rockaway River near the South Salem Street Bridge.
The project to replace the 37-year-old decking of the bridge, which began in January 2020, was completed in November. The $ 1.85 million in funding came from the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Local Bridges Future Needs program.
With around 18,000 vehicles crossed every day, it is an important artery for the city.
“A bridge connects two sides. Congressman Lewis bridged the races through his civil rights activism,” said Senator Anthony Bucco.
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