Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) on Friday reviewed the day known as “Bleeding Sunday” ― when he and a few hundred others walked the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama in 1965 ― while crusading for Stacey Abrams, the Democratic gubernatorial chosen one in Georgia.
“I gave a little blood on that scaffold in Selma, 53 years prior,” Lewis told the group at a rally. “I nearly kicked the bucket. A portion of my companions and associates were killed in Mississippi and different spots.”
The congressman and casting a ballot rights dissident was 25 years of age when he had his head broken by law implementation officers while gently walking along the scaffold over the Alabama River to Montgomery on March 7, 1965. The walk planned to point out dark disappointment in the South and pursued the killing of lobbyist Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was shot by a state trooper amid a serene social liberties challenge.
At the rally, Lewis urged voters to show up to the polls for Abrams, saying voting is the “most powerful nonviolent” instrumental tool in society.
“I’m not soliciting any from you to give any blood,” he said. “I’m simply requesting that you go and vote like you never cast a ballot. We need to cast a ballot.”
Lewis likewise recognized the multiple occasions he has been captured while battling for equity. “I’m presumably going to get captured again to something,” he said as the group chuckled and cheered.
During another period people waited in immovable lines, faced billy clubs and cattle prods, in order to register and vote. Have courage, raw courage, and let nothing stop you from exercising your right to vote in this election. Do your part. Vote. #GoodTrouble
— John Lewis (@repjohnlewis) November 3, 2018
“I’m not proposing that any of you ought to go out and get captured, yet when you see something that isn’t right, not reasonable, not simply, stand up and say something, accomplish something,” he said.
John Lewis’ discourse addressing casting ballot rights is especially strong considering the charges of dark voter concealment in Georgia.
Abrams, who has long battled for casting ballot rights, has charged her Republican rival, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, of voter concealment.
Previous President Barack Obama, who talked at Friday’s rally alongside Lewis, told the group: “Georgia, be unafraid. On the off chance that their endeavors to take away your entitlement to cast a ballot makes you distraught, there’s solitary one approach to make it right: Don’t boo, vote.”
