John Lewis

A week after commemorating the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, U.S. Congressman John Lewis is reflecting on the weekend’s events.

Lewis assembled with dignitaries and hundreds of people on the Edmund Pettus Bridge last Saturday, the site where Alabama state troopers attacked more than 600 hundred protestors trying to march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights.

Lewis was among the injured demonstrators in the confrontation.

Fifty years later, the scene was different. During the remembrance ceremony, the Congressman introduced the President of the United States.

”To be there with President Barack Obama and to have the opportunity to introduce him - to that crowd,” Lewis told Two-Way Street Host Bill Nigut in an interview that airs Saturday. “It was so amazing. I just feel more than lucky. I feel very blessed that I’m still here. “

Listen to the entire interview on Two Way Street on GPB Radio Saturday at 4 p.m. with a repeat on Sunday at 11 a.m.

The fact that many figures of the civil rights movement who walked and worked with him to bring about social change are no longer living weighed on his mind while he attended the events.

“I did think a great deal about individuals like Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Ralph Abernathy - Hosea Williams who walked with me,” he said. “The two of us led the walk across the bridge but Rosa Parks later walked with us across the bridge into Montgomery. Ralph Bunch the Nobel Peace Prize winner and Rabbi Heschel walked with us.”

”There were so many ministers, priests, other religious leaders that walked with us. We remember them. I thought about them as I was on the bridge.”

Lewis turned 75 in February, but shows no indication of retiring from tackling the issues. Education and jobs are on his agenda.

Congressman Lewis also says he wants to take on immigration reform.

It doesn’t make sense to have a country where more than 11 million people are living in the shadows. It doesn’t matter whether we’re black or white, latino or Asian American or Native American - we’re one people, we’re one family. We all live in the same house, not just the American house but the world house.”

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