Florida Governor Ron Desantis gives a briefing from Flagler Hospital in Saint Augusta on the States Coronavirus pandemic. Q a, democratic congressman john lewis of georgia, author of across that bridge life lessons and a vision for change. Brian congressman john lewis, why did you name your book across that bridge . Rep. Lewis well, during the past few years, ive been crossing bridges, rivers, mini bridges, bridges of understanding, building bridges, trying to bring people together to create what i like to call the beloved community. Brian where does the Edmond Pettus bridge come into that picture . Rep. Lewis well, the Edmond Pettus bridge is symbolic of so many bridges, but in 1965, when i was much younger, and head of an Organization Called the student nonviolent coordinating a group of young people, students and others attempted to cross the bridge in selma, alabama. Montgomery to dramatize to the nation and to the world that people wanted simply to register to vote. We were walking in twos. And when we arrive at the apex of the bridge down below, we saw a sea of blue, Alabama State troopers. And we continued to walk. And we came within hearing distance of the state troopers. And a man identified himself and said im major john cloud of the Alabama State troopers. This is an unlawful march. And it will not be allowed to continue. And one of the young people walking beside me said, major, give us a moment to kneel and pray. And the major said, troopers advance. And they came toward us, beating us with nightsticks and bullwhips, trampling us with horses, and releasing the tear gas. At the foot of that bridge, i was beaten. I thought i was going to die. I thought i saw death. So, at the foot of that bridge, i gave a little blood to make it possible for all people to be able to participate in a democratic process. So the book suggests a symbolic bridge, or mini bridges that we still must cross, rivers that we still must cross, before we build a beloved community, or a truly democratic, Multiracial Society in america. Brian did you ever look up who Edmond Pettus was . Rep. Lewis i did look up and discover this man, Edmond Pettus, a general in alabama. You know, the bridge, this particular bridge was dedicated the same year that i was born in 1940. So i have a kinship to this bridge. And every year, sometime more than once year, but every year, i make it a point to go back to that bridge and cross that bridge. And for the past 47 years, ive gone back the weekend, the first weekend in march, since 1965. Brian how did it fit in with everything that was going on back in the 1960s . Rep. Lewis in order to travel from montgomery to selma, you had to cross that bridge. You had to cross the alabama river. Selma was in the heart of the black belt of alabama. Thats where hundreds and thousands of poor, black people lived. They had been sharecroppers. They had been tenant farmers. But this little town, selma, was a place of commerce. And people would come on a friday and saturday to shop. But in selma, people could not register to vote simply because of the color of their skin. Only 2. 1 of blacks were registered to vote. You had to pass a socalled literacy test. On one occasion, a man was asked to count how many bubbles on a bar of soap. On another occasion, a man was asked to count the number of jelly beans in a jar. People stood in what i call unmovable lines. The only time you could even attempt to go down to the county courthouse and go up a set of steps to a set of double doors and get a copy of the socalled literacy test, and the application was on the first and third mondays of each month. And on occasion, the registrar would put up a sign, saying the office of the registrar is closed. And people went there day in and day out, standing in line. People were beaten. Some arrested and jailed while they stood there. Brian today, the mayor of selma is the second africanamerican to have that job . Rep. Lewis the mayor of selma is the second africanamerican mayor in that city. The city council is a biracial city council. The police chief is an africanamerican. Selma is a different place today. It is a better place today. Brian what happened to you after you were beaten . Whered you go . Rep. Lewis on that sunday afternoon i was beaten, and 47 years later, i dont recall how i made it back to the Little Church that we had left from. But apparently, someone literally carried me back to the church. I felt like i was going to die. I do recall, i thought i saw death. I really thought i was going to die. But i do remember being back at that church, a little brown chapel, ame church in downtown selma. The church was full to capacity. More than 2,000 people on the outside trying to get in to protest what had happened on the bridge. And someone asked me to say something. And i stood up and said i dont understand it, i dont understand it, how president johnson can send troops to vietnam and cannot send troops to selma, alabama to protect people whose only desire is to register to vote. And the next thing i knew, along with 16 other people, i had been transferred to the local hospital in selma, the Good Samaritan hospital, that was operated by a group of nuns. And these wonderful sisters, they took care of us. And today, many of those sisters are retired, living in rochester, new york. And i plan to go there to visit them within the next few days. Brian anybody severely wounded, that they didnt get out of the hospital for a long time . Rep. Lewis there were people who stayed for a few days, a few weeks. I got out within two days. Brian any of the names that were around you, would they be familiar to us, the people you marched with . Rep. Lewis well, i marched with, later, not on that day, but later during the week and the following weeks with Martin Luther king, jr. Dr. King came to the hospital to visit us the next day. And he said to me, he said, john, dont worry. Well make it from selma to montgomery. He told me that he had made an appeal for religious leaders to come to selma. And two days later, more than 1,000 priests, rabbis, nuns, and ministers came. And they marched to the same point where we had been beaten two days earlier. And one young minister went out with a group that following tuesday evening to try to get something to eat at a local restaurant. They were attacked members of by members of the klan. He was so severely beaten, the next day he died at a local hospital in selma in birmingham, alabama, rather. He was from boston, reverend james reed. Brian so, when was it that people could leave selma, walk across the bridge, and go all the way to montgomery and not get hassled . Rep. Lewis we went into federal court and got an order against sheriff jim clark, who was the sheriff of selma and dallas county, and against governor george wallace. And a federal judge issued an order saying that we had a right to march. President Lyndon Johnson came and spoke to a joint session of the congress eight days after bloody sunday and condemned the violence in selma, introduced the Voting Rights act. And before he concluded that speech, he said, and we shall overcome. We call it the we shall overcome speech. It probably was one of the most meaningful speeches any american president had delivered in modern time on the whole question of civil rights. Brian on that note of we shall overcome, you mentioned in your book about rosa parks. And you go back to her training. You say that she wasnt trained i mean, that when she sat in that bus and wouldnt get up, that she had an earlier training for that in tennessee. Can you tell us about that place . Rep. Lewis there is a Little School, at that time, a Little School that exists in tennessee in a little place called mount eagle, tennessee. It is between nashville and chattanooga, tennessee, and was called Highlander Folk School. It was started by a guy, a brave and courageous white gentleman by the name of miles horton. It was a wonderful place. And he was a wonderful, wonderful man. It was to train and organize union people, many white workers. And then he started working in a whole area of race relation, bringing black people and white people together. It was one of the few meeting places in the heart of deep south, where blacks and whites could meet. And they start training people there how to organize, how to become community organizers, how to protest. And thats where we start singing, we shall overcome. Thats where rosa parks heard it. Rosa parks said it was the Highlander Folk School, where she had her first meal with someone of a different race. It was also for me the first place that i had a meal with someone white. But we worked together. We studied together. And we studied the philosophy and the discipline of nonviolence. We studied what ghandi attempted to do in south africa, what he accomplished in india. We studied what dr. Martin luther king, jr. Was all about in montgomery. We studied thoreau and civil disobedience. So, we were prepared when the sitins came and the freedom ride. And by the time of selma, we were more than prepared. Brian so, rosa park was in 1955, the bus incident . Rep. Lewis rosa parks took a seat on december 1, 1955 in downtown montgomery. And that led to the montgomery bus boycott of 1955 and 1956. Brian youd have been 15 then . Rep. Lewis i was 15yearsold. And i remember like it was yesterday. I heard about it on the radio. I read about it in a local newspaper. We were too poor to have a newspaper subscription, but my grandfather had one. And when you were finished reading his newspaper each day, we would get his newspaper and we would read his newspaper. And i followed the drama of the montgomery bus boycott. Now when i was growing up, and visit the little town of troy, alabama, or visit tuskegee, or visit montgomery, and see those signs that said white men, colored men, white women, colored women, white waiting, colored waiting, and asked my mother and my father, my grandparents, my great grandparents why, why, they would say thats the way it is. Dont get in the way. Dont get in trouble. But it was individuals like rosa parks and Martin Luther king, jr. And others that inspired me to get in trouble. And today, i call it good trouble, necessary trouble. Brian you say in your book that you were in 40 different prisons or 40 different times you were behind bars. Can you tell us about some of those . Rep. Lewis the first time i got arrested was in nashville, tennessee. I was a student there. Brian at fisk . Rep. Lewis i was a student at fisk. I first attended a Little School called American Baptist college for four years and then fisk for two years. I spent six years in nashville. Nashville, tennessee was the first city that i lived in. I grew up in rural, rural alabama. And going off to school there, i wanted to find a way to get in the way. I wanted to find a way to do something. When i heard dr. King speaking on the radio, i felt like he was speaking directly to me, saying john robert lewis, you too can do something. You can make a contribution. So, going to nashville and to Highlander Folk School prepared me to find a way. And i got involved in the sitins. Brian how did you know about Highlander Folk School . Rep. Lewis attending meetings in nashville, attending school, a church. And people would say you can go to nashville. And from nashville, you can go and visit Highlander Folk School. Theyre training people. Theyre teaching people. And when i got a chance to go with a group of my schoolmates and classmates, i made the trip there. And it was there that i literally grew up. It taught me how to be prepared to sitin. It taught me how to help organize. It i grew up, i literally grew up at the age of 18 and 19. Brian was marion barry at fisk when you were there . Rep. Lewis marion barry was a graduate student at Fisk University when i was in nashville. He attended some of the first nonviolent workshop. And he later became the chairperson of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. But he participated in the very first sitin, the test sitins. We had what we called test sitins in nashville in the fall of 1959, students from Fisk University, Tennessee State university, vanderbilt university, peabody college, meharry medical college, and American Baptist, and we had just test the facilities, just establish the fact that we would be served or denied service. It was an Interracial Group of black and White College students. Brian why did you major in philosophy . And do you have a favorite philosopher . Rep. Lewis i majored in philosophy. I was interested in becoming a minister. I studied philosophy and religion long before i went off to school. I had the desire, this burning desire. Some people call it a calling, that youre called to preach. Youre moved by the spirit, but i felt i needed to be trained. When i was a little boy, i used to, from time to time, play church as a very, very, very young child. And it was my responsibility on the farm to care for the chickens, to raise the chickens. So we would gather all of our chickens together in the chicken yard, and my brothers and sisters and my cousins would help make up the audience, make up the congregation. And i would start speaking or preaching. And when i look back, some of these chickens would bow their heads. Some of these chickens would shake their heads. They never quite said amen, but im convinced that some of those chickens that i preached to during the 1940s and the 1950s tended to listen to me much better than some of my colleagues listen to me today. And some of those chickens was just a little more productive. At least, they produced eggs. But those chickens taught me patience. And by the time i got to nashville to school, and the movement, i was prepared. I was ready to sit there, to sit in, to wait, and wait all day into late evening to be served. And we were denied service. And we were arrested. And we went to jail. The first time i got arrested was on february the 27th, 1960. And when i was arrested, i felt free. Brian where did you go . Rep. Lewis i was taken, placed in a wagon. And from that police wagon or van, taken to the city jail with 88 other students. Brian whats the longest time you ever spent in a prison . Rep. Lewis the longest time i ever spent in a prison was in mississippi. Brian parchman . Rep. Lewis it was in parchman. In parchman, it was no one, no one in their right mind wanted to go to parchman. Brian tell us about parchman. Rep. Lewis parchman, you know, people are right about parchman. In novels, plays, poems, parchman was known as sort of no mans land. People go there and some people didnt return. I remember so well, after staying many days in jail in jackson, mississippi, the city jail, the county jail, and then taken down to parchman. Brian who were there others that we would know that were with you at the time . Rep. Lewis one of the young people that went to jail with me in parchman was bob filner. He was a congressperson from california. He was only 19yearsold. I was 21 at the time. But there was individuals like the reverend james lawson, became one of our wonderful teachers of the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. Bernard laugfed, james belver, diane nash, these were all young people in the movement. There were men and women that got arrested and went to jail. William sloane coffin got arrested and went to jail. There was lawyers, ministers, rabbis, priests. Like, people came from all over the country. They couldnt take seeing people being arrested and taken to jail simply because they wanted to be served at a lunch counter or ride together on a bus. Brian you didnt tell us who your favorite philosopher was. Rep. Lewis my favorite philosopher, when i was studying, was hegel. Hegel talked about the thesis anthesis. He talked about the struggle between good and evil, that in society, if youre going to bring about change, there must be a struggle. And there must be a division between the forces of darkness and the forces of light, the forces of good and the forces of evil. And somehow, out of that evil and good, something wholesome must emerge. And in the final analysis, you got to move toward reconciliation. So in the book, i talk about in the very last chapter, i talk about reconciliation. On the freedom rides in may of 1961, my seat mate was a young white gentleman. The two of us arrived at a little bus station in rockhill, south carolina. We were beaten, left bloody, left in a pool of blood. And one of the young men that beat me on may 9, 1961 came to my office in washington in february 2009. Brian edwin wilson . Rep. Lewis yes, edwin wilson, mr. Wilson, came to my office with his son, who had been encouraging his father to seek out the people that he had abused and attacked during the 1960s. He came and said mr. Lewis, im one of the people that attacked you, that beat you. I want to apologize. Will you accept my apology . Will you forgive me . He started crying. His son started crying. I started crying. He hugged me. I gave him a hug. He called me brother. I called him brother. And since then, ive seen the gentleman four more times. That was moving to a reconciliation. And even today, when i go back to places in alabama, other part of the south, young people and people not so young, some older people, white people of the south come up and say, mr. Lewis, congressman lewis, i want to apologize to you on behalf of all of the white people of alabama of the south for what we did. Brian mr. Wilson and you were in confrontation physically where he assaulted you where . Rep. Lewis mr. Wilson beat me, knocked me down, left me bloody at the Greyhound Bus station in rockhill, south carolina, which is about 35 miles from charlotte, north carolina. Brian what was the occasion . Rep. Lewis we were traveling through the south as part of the freedom riders, trave