National Historic Landmark

So many of us have lived our lives placing unmerited value on the opinions of others while discrediting our personal truth and reality.  Breaking the shackles of people-pleasing requires honest self-appraisal, a healthy dose of self-esteem, and an enormous commitment to self-realization.  

….as near as the destination may be, it’s still the journey that matters….

Edmund Winston Pettus was a Confederate brigadier general, a U.S. senator and a grand dragon of the KKK.  In 1940, Selma, Alabama, needed a bridge across the Alabama River.  A steel arch bridge was constructed and named the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

On March 7, 1965, civil rights movement demonstrators attempted crossing the bridge to march to the state capital of Montgomery.  They were met by mounted police who attacked with billy clubs and tear gas.  The day became known as Bloody Sunday.  On February 27, 2013, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named after a KKK racist, became a symbol of the African-American plight in America and was declared a National Historic Landmark.

John Lewis met Rosa Parks when he was 17 years old, met Martin Luther King, Jr a year later.  He was born in 1940 in Troy Alabama to sharecroppers and by the age of six had seen only two white people.  In1961, John Lewis became one of the thirteen original freedom riders who were determined to ride from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans in an integrated bus.

On March 7, 1965, Lewis and fellow activist Hosea Williams led 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus bridge.  When confronted by police, the marchers stopped to pray and the police attacked.

Presidential Medal of Freedom – February, 2011

from his acceptance remarks at ceremony of President Barack Obama presenting the civil rights warrior with the Presidential Medal of Freedom –

“never get lost in a sea of despair…have this abiding faith that there are things that are so right, so good, so necessary that you are willing to die for…”

Congressman John Lewis
February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020