Relive The Historic Selma March With Someone Who Was There

Saturday morning, President Obama delivered a speech on the steps of Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, commemorating 50 years since the historic march for voting rights. The President honored the continued struggle for equality in America, its leaders and activists, and the 600 protesters who were attacked by police officers. Among them was John Lewis, now a United States Congressman and the last living member of the Civil Right’s Movements Big Six, a group which also includes James Farmer, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, and Martin Luther King, Jr. The president called Lewis one of his heroes — and no wonder. Armed with only a toothbrush, a book on government, and an apple, Lewis, along with fellow activist Hosea Williams, led protesters in a quest for change on a day now known to U.S. history as Bloody Sunday. Alabama State Troopers met their peaceful march with tear gas and night sticks, but the spirit of the movement couldn’t be beaten back. Yesterday, Rep. Lewis live-tweeted a chronology of the events as they happened fifty years ago this weekend. He ends the story with a powerful photo of himself and President Obama in Selma and the phrase “When people tell me nothing has changed, I say come walk in my shoes and I will show you change.”  A selection of his inspiring tweets are below; you can find the whole series on Twitter.